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Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/07/18 04:56:17


Post by: Pekel


Hey Dakka - been following a bunch of logs here for the past long time, but never really posted much. I consolidated a few of my Warseer topics and decided now would be a good time to give a little bit of hobby work back to Dakka, so I'll be posting the updates here as well. Be sure to check the links to the past logs (with LOTS of photos). Hope you enjoy!

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Last Updated 07/17/13

I've been running four different project logs for the past long time - Tyranids, Eldar, Catachan, and terrain - and now that all of them are nearing completion with only sporadic updates to each, I figured I'd combine them all into one log. Links to the original logs can be found by clicking the names of each. I'll be using this topic mostly to post updated versions of units as I go back and touch them up to bring them to a higher standard. If you want to see years and years worth of updates and WIP shots for each army, check out the old topics!

Check back here for hobby updates, battle shots, and maybe a bit of fluff. These first few posts will be updated every now and then when I have nice 'finished' shots of models, but you'll have to read along to see most of the updates. Eventually my brother and I would like to play a campaign from Kill Team up to Apocalypse, so that might happen someday too. Hope you enjoy!

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Verdekil XVIII is a lush jungle world on the cusp of Death World classification. Its most valuable resource is its diverse plant life, which offers Magos Biologis infinite opportunities to explore new avenues of creating medicines, combat stimm-drugs, virulent weapon-toxins, and more. Small research outposts dot the planet’s surface, with detachments of Catachan JP Regiment assigned to each.

Over the course of surveying the planet, mysterious ruins have come to light. Abandoned structures, most of unknown function, show both a strong xenos influence as well as reflecting an amalgamation of human cultures. Explorator teams have been sent out to uncover the story behind these heretical ruins, and the few that return point towards Verdekil XVIII as an Eldar Maiden World in which the aliens returned and, in fickle Eldar fashion, actually formed a peaceful accord with settling interlopers instead of exterminating them. But where the Eldar are now, nobody know.

As more research outposts fall silent, the race is on to harvest Verdekil XVIII’s biological and cultural secrets before the encroaching Tyranid Splinter Fleet arrives in full force and wipes it from the galactic map. Unless the isolated Catachan garrisons can find powerful allies soon, Verdekil XVIII is doomed to be scoured within the next few short months…


The Planet of Verdekil XVIII

Ever since starting my Tyranid army in 2005, I’ve imagined having a jungle table for them to fight on. This slowly started to take shape over the years, but since I traveled for school and work I was restricted to working a tiny bit at a time when I was ‘home’ at my parents’ house. Now I’m finally living somewhere I can keep my models, so the jungle table is becoming a reality! I’m a zoology major who’s worked in climbing courses, wilderness schools, outdoor education centers, river guiding outfits and trail construction/maintenance crews – so having a table that reflects some of the great outdoors and the animals that inhabit it is very important to me! The name ‘Verdekil XVIII’ came about as a play on my current address, where all of the terrain and models reside.

Verdekil XVIII is primarily a lush, tropical planet. There are stripes of cold rocky barrenness or scorching desert, but most of the interest lies in the jungle regions. There are the valuable and deadly flora, the exceedingly dangerous saurian fauna, and the mysterious ruins and artifacts.

Some Imperial outposts exist, and only constant vigilance keeps them safe from both creeping overgrowth and native predations.





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Last Updated 07/17/13

The Catachan JP Regiment
Having spent years working, teaching primitive skills and trapping animals in various forests, jungles and rivers, the Catachan naturally appealed to me. I knew from the start that I wanted to include the amazing Dark Elf Cold One models as Rough Riders, and the Jurassic Park theme grew from there. The tanks and sergeants are also all named after beers. The main goal is to have a force of characters who may be a little ragtag and undisciplined from their prolonged backwater posting, but are no less dangerous for it. This is my third and most recent army.

The Catachan JP Regiment was formed from mismatched elements of various other Catachan forces – soldiers who were left behind to recuperate as their comrades moved on to new deployments, lone squad survivors who needed a new beginning, or incorporated specialist squads from other Catachan regiments. Adding to this hodgepodge feel are the inherited and scavenged weapons the army uses. The initial shipment was marked with JP, though with typical Munitorum efficiency the meaning of the initials was never conveyed (it can be assumed the intended recipients were wiped out and the supplies re-routed). As such the regiment refers to itself by any number of names – from the straightforward ‘Jungle Patrol’ to things such as the more colorful ‘Jaguar Punters’ or ‘Just Pain.’ Whichever main encampment they are using at the time is also typically referred to as the ‘Jolly Pisshole.’ The JP Regiment, being stationed on what is seen by many as a backwater babysitting duty, have taken to brewing and distilling as a large part of their culture. Casks of brew can often be seen lashed to tanks as good-luck totems, the idea being that beer is readily handy (if a bit warm) to facilitate celebration upon another safe return home.
















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Last Updated 07/17/13

Splinter Fleet Cyclone
Tyranids were my first love when I was introduced to Warhammer 40,000 (who would have thought a dinosaur-loving kid who later studied entomology in college would like Tyranids?) in the late nineties by a friend, and though the hobby fizzled out at that time I later got back into it with the release of Battle for Macragge. The Tyranids are, appropriately enough, a constantly evolving force – it’s quite usual to break apart old models to spawn new conversions, and the color scheme is always changing subtly.

A splinter fleet of Hive Fleet Kraken, Splinter Fleet Cyclone was named for its habit of touching down on a planet, assimilating the DNA of the most dangerous organisms, and then lifting off again. In this manner Splinter Fleet Cyclone remains small and elite, avoiding attracting much attention. Nevertheless, the Imperium eventually recognized the hazard that this fleet posed and dispatched a Space Marine Chapter - the Firedrakes - to contain and eliminate the xenos. The Tyranids have shown remarkable variety in the forces they use against different races, their Lictors and Genestealers probing the enemy's weaknesses and resulting in diverse army configurations. It is unknown at this time if Verdekil XVIII is simply being sampled to assimilate its dangerous fauna, or if full-scale assault is in the works.












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Last Updated 07/17/13

Craftworld Mata Nui
Eldar were chosen as my second army, and mostly as a break from painting the endless green tide of Tyranids. I wanted an army with a huge scope for personalization and trying out all sorts of colors. Trying to think of a unique theme that could still look Eldar and would allow all manner of conversions, as well as have a personal resonance, I went with the admittedly really unusual LEGO Bionicle theme. The Bionicle toys and storyline were a huge part of me and my brother’s life for years before Warhammer, so it was an easy choice. Eldar are already a colorful army with all their Aspect Warriors, so it could be a bit ridiculous and themed without needing too much explanation. It may not be to everyone’s taste, but I’ve had a lot of nostalgic fun making this army and that’s what matters!

Eldar are always enigmatic, and those of Craftworld Mata Nui are no different. They are a particularly insular culture when it comes to interacting with other Eldar and have radically unique ornamentation on many of their warrior’s machines and armor. Individual heraldry and decoration appears to play a large part in their more specialized warrior units. Despite their disdain for other Eldar, who they likely blame for The Fall, Craftworld Mata Nui has been observed interacting with other xenos races – including, if the ruins on Verdekil XVIII are any indication, humans. The function of these ruins, the fate of the inhabitants, and why the Eldar fight to protect them are all mysteries the Ordo Xenos is working to solve.


















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Last Updated 07/17/13

Other Forces
With the new Allies Matrix it’s really easy to get swept up in making themed ‘counts-as’ allied detachments. My brother also has three armies which will occasionally be making planetfall on Verdekil XVIII (when our schedules overlap and he can make it up to visit), so I thought I’d briefly introduce them here even though I won’t be posting about them. If my brother decides to maintain his Warseer logs I’ll link to them here.

Genestealer Cult
With Tyranids and IG, how could this not happen? The Grey Knights Codex finally provided a simple and legal way to make Genestealer Cults in games of 40k, by simply allying Death Cult Assassins and Arco-Flagellants to an IG army as Genestealer equivalents.

Not all of the silenced Guard garrisons on Verdekil XVIII are lost – at least, not destroyed. More than once a beleaguered JP Regiment unit has voxed for backup from a nearby outpost only to find the ‘reinforcements’ siding with Tyranid aggressors, apparently shielded from predation by their shared synaptic web. The exact number of outposts fallen to such heresy is unknown, but likely it grows as broods of feral Genestealers stalk the jungle.



Mechanicus Squats
I always liked dwarves most out of the typical fantasy races, and Squats were a perfect way to slake some of that interest without starting a new game system. What started out as one Enginseer model has slowly started growing into what will one day hopefully be a sizeable allied force.

The regiment’s mechanics are mostly members of the endangered Squat race and have a natural affinity with machines, as well as serving as the army’s resident top brewmasters. Barrels of Squat brew are highly prized amongst the troops, though many complain that the sophisticated Squat Enginseer fortress-workshops make for unfair working conditions compared to damp corners of platoon bunkhouses that most JP Regiment brewers work with. Though some have joined the rank and file, most Squats keep busy hidden in underground workshops, tinkering at their mysterious projects. When the entrances to these workshops are threatened, however, the Squats show their true fighting force.



Kabal of the Ecstatic Overdose
Just kidding, that’s not the real name. But my brother never gave them a name, so that’ll do for now. These guys were largely donated by the friend who tried to get me into 40k however many years ago, after he himself got out of the hobby. My brother had worked to update and improve the army over the past few years while still preserving the original owner’s feel.

Occasionally Dark Eldar raiding forces touch down on Verdekil XVIII, owing to its stock of excellent pit-arena Death World xenos (or Catachan, who the Dark Eldar also find make good sport in arena fights).





Da Pikked Skabz
Again just kidding about the name, but my brother hasn’t named them and painted them dark red so what’re you gonna do? Gotta call ‘em something.

As with most of the galaxy, Orks are an occasional blight on Verdekil XVIII. They seem mostly to use the planet as a pit stop to ‘get their krump on’ while en-route to a larger engagement.







Space Marine Firedrakes Chapter
My brother’s original army and the classic arch-nemesis of my Tyranids.

Rumored to be descended from the Primarch Vulkan, the Firedrakes are a roving Chapter which at one point was dedicated to the pursuit and extermination of Splinter Fleet Cyclone. Though now enmeshed in conflict with large portions of both the Ecstatic Overdose Kabal and Da Pikked Skabs Ork warband, they still see to it that the JP Regiment receives Astartes assistance in their hours of darkest need. In return, the Catachan supply allies in distant warzones when the Space Marines have need of mortal stealth.





Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/07/18 07:02:05


Post by: Andronoid


Very nice paint-job and converting. I do like your Genestealer Cult the most out of these. Very heretic!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/07/18 09:40:00


Post by: TheDraconicLord


Read the whole thing, this is simply amazing. Such enormous background for what seems a spectacular gaming table.

Of all the models presented, I loved the Catachans the most and I usually hate Catachans, but that Jurassic Park banner among other jewels won my heart.

Thanks for sharing

P.S: Actually Kabal of the Ecstatic Overdose is an awesome name


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/07/20 11:12:05


Post by: Pekel


 Andronoid wrote:
Very nice paint-job and converting. I do like your Genestealer Cult the most out of these. Very heretic!

Thanks! Here's a bit more Cult material for you. Some of the pictures are outdated, as I frequently go back and revise models.















 TheDraconicLord wrote:
Of all the models presented, I loved the Catachans the most and I usually hate Catachans, but that Jurassic Park banner among other jewels won my heart.

If you like that, then check this out!









And a WIP terrain piece that's 99% done now...



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/07/22 04:03:47


Post by: Pekel


After having these models painted for something like six years (when the old Eldar Codex was brand new), I finally made them flying bases! Of course on the tanks you can't see them, but they're there. Eventually if GW makes new Jetbikes I'd like to turn these into Shining Spears and paint some Guardian Jetbikes in the neutral tan color. I also eventually hope to get a wash in the crevices on the tanks for more contrast, plus of course Scatter Lasers on the Wave Serpent. But here they all are for now!







Hope you enjoy. Should have some more pictures in the next two or three days.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/07/22 04:33:13


Post by: livanbard


Very characterful. The Squat Enginseer became one of may favorite conversions. I may even steal your idea.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/07/22 10:28:07


Post by: TheDraconicLord


Oh man, what glorious work, that Mech-Dinossaur is truly epic <3


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/07/23 17:10:33


Post by: Pekel


 livanbard wrote:
Very characterful. The Squat Enginseer became one of may favorite conversions. I may even steal your idea.

Go for it! If you want more Squat inspiration, here's some pictures from a commission I just finished:











Oh man, what glorious work, that Mech-Dinossaur is truly epic <3

Thanks - i thought I was about done with the dinosaur conversions, but the new Lizardmen 'Ankylosaurus' coming out is pretty tempting!

For a long time I wanted to make this guy's blue into gray as well as spice up the really boring base, so here's the before and after:





Back to work!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/07/23 17:20:59


Post by: Lucarikx


Bionicle and 40k? Awesome!

Subbed!

Lucarikx


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/07/25 02:59:28


Post by: Pekel


Glad someone likes the theme, I can certainly understand how many people wouldn't.

Been working on a ton of things at the same time and should have some finished Eldar and terrain paint soon, but for now here's some WIP models.

First, two WIP models to count as allied Arco-Flagellants - I call them Brawlers. I wanted some models to represent guys who, even among the Catachan, stand out as ridiculous fighters. I've been reading a bunch of classics on my Kindle, since public domain books are free, so here's a start on Tarzan and Queequeg. Since Tarzan regularly chokes out lions and Queequeg jumps on whales' backs and slays them with just a sharp stick, they made the badass cut. I'm debating how to make them stand out better for WYSIWYG, and was thinking of adding some blood on weapons since it's absent on the rest of the army.Tarzan will have a jaguar pelt and Queegueg will be covered in tattoos. But I NEED CATACHAN LEGS to make them! Please PM me if you might have two to spare, I'd be eternally grateful!



The third Brawler is Friar Tuck from Robin Hood, who I readily admit took a bunch of cues from Little John. I just thought the friar look was more interesting. One either side of Tuck is a Catachan Knife Fighter, who play as Death Cult Assassins. They're converted from Dark Eldar legs. I intentionally went for a fast, skinny look to them. A third is in the works, also a female. I'm going the opposite of most wargamers and actually reducing busts and covering up exposed midriffs so that the ladies fit in better and look less ridiculous.



And lastly, here's one of the 'Crisis Battlesuits' in progress. He's actually the shortest one - the rest have straighter legs, lengthened midsections, and longer necks. My fingers are also covering up the 'jetpack' on the shoulders, which helps bulk it up. Half of them will also have flying stands. Think it looks significantly different from a Wraithguard?



Also, I NEED THREE ELDAR FLAMERS. Ideally the ones included with the Wraithlord. If anybody can help me with the flamers or Catachan legs I'd greatly appreciate it, and can PayPal you some money for your efforts. Thanks, and will have some more finished painted models soon!

EDIT: Here's a bit more. The third Knife Fighter, who still needs a bit of face surgery and some narrower shoulders. Like the pose though!



And the very WIP temple ruins they'll be fighting over. There's two more as well, and I hope to eventually find another one of those Playmobil bridges on ebay.



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/07/27 01:27:44


Post by: Pekel


New Lizardmen are tempting. I want a Terradon and a Cold One for terrain details... maybe an old Salamander for a Nork Dedogg 'attack dog'... and if the Bastiladon was cheaper (and I had need of another tank), I'd make this!



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/07/30 08:15:58


Post by: Viktor von Domm


I have been led here by bebops thread... your talent is amazing... so many wonderful conversion to be seen here...

the catachans are awesome...and I like the fact that you built two armies that are battling each other... catachans with matching ´nids... that is a winning formula!!!

and seeing that last mock-up...you defiantly should invest in more dinos!!!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/07/30 10:30:51


Post by: HoeJarris


Bionicle themed eldar? Hell yeah!

Also cant wait to see what you do with the Nids and Catachan!

Subbed


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/07/30 10:44:27


Post by: TheDraconicLord


 Pekel wrote:
New Lizardmen are tempting. I want a Terradon and a Cold One for terrain details... maybe an old Salamander for a Nork Dedogg 'attack dog'... and if the Bastiladon was cheaper (and I had need of another tank), I'd make this!



It's... It's so beautiful :') *sniff* A real miniature of this would be all kinds of amazing :')


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/07/30 11:56:45


Post by: dsteingass


Some beautiful conversion, painting, terrain, and especially Catachan work!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/01 13:34:37


Post by: Pekel


Thank you guys for the compliments, they're all very much appreciated.

 Viktor von Domm wrote:
and seeing that last mock-up...you defiantly should invest in more dinos!!!

Don't know about investing money and space in more yet, but I couldn't resist another mock-up! Here's the old Jurassic Park Spinosaurus I have:



And here's a concept for an allied Catachan Dreadknight!




 HoeJarris wrote:
Bionicle themed eldar? Hell yeah!

Been working on some terrain to match the theme. The stone color is about done, but everything else is very WIP. They'll eventually be covered in foliage, moss (over the sloppy foam parts to hide them!), skulls and other 40k details.







Also played three games with my new Eldar and won them all! Here's the Night Lords from one opponent. My brother should eventually post a few pictures from against his Orks.







Will hopefully finish up painting some things soon!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/01 13:36:41


Post by: dsteingass


What legs do you use for the riders?


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/01 14:33:49


Post by: Tibbsy


Wow!

You have made dinosaur mounted artillery

Dinosaur. Mounted. Artillery.

I am in awe... Subbed and exalted, some fantastic work in this thread!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/01 14:47:35


Post by: Samurai_Eduh


Jurassic Park IG? I need new pants now.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/01 17:05:12


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Pekel, as you know, im a huge fan of your catachan blog. FYI those that are new to pekels blog here on dakka, check out the beer guns and catachan blog on warseer to see alot more of that army wip. Its great to see your other ventures pekel! I LOVE the the scifi esque dwarves with the power weapons. great fun, and lovely lovely painting My favorite model shown is the old school hybrid in a jungle catachan-esque scheme. Beautiful models and your style is very obvious. i imagine id be able to call your minis without knowing who painted them. A mark of a true artist!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/02 21:12:15


Post by: Pekel


 dsteingass wrote:
What legs do you use for the riders?

On the Cold One Rough Riders and T. rex Sentinel I used normal Catachan legs cut and greenstuffed. On the Triceratops Griffon I used a Sentinel pilot.

Jurassic Park IG? I need new pants now.

Hope you don't mess a new pair of pants, but I have some Jurassic Park-style fences made by a Dakka member that still need some final paint details.





bebopdrums, your praise means a lot. Was always a big fan of yours, so thanks for the compliments!

Temples are almost done, waiting on more green flock so I can make them look a bit more lush. Also need more details added, but certainly at a good gaming standard in my book.



Also, I finally thought up a character for the fourth and final Brawler conversion. Who gets into tons of fist fights, wears a sweet hat, and would be perfectly at home running around jungle ruins? HINT: his close combat weapon is a whip.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/02 21:31:35


Post by: sparkywtf


Loving the armies!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/02 23:11:05


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Hey Pekel, while you're at it, I think blanka needs to show up somewhere in your army


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/03 00:24:42


Post by: Viktor von Domm


HINT: his close combat weapon is a whip.


will you convert him? i think hasslefree already made a model... and reaper minis too...iirc...


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/06 02:48:03


Post by: Pekel


 bebopdrums2424 wrote:
Hey Pekel, while you're at it, I think blanka needs to show up somewhere in your army

Never actually played Street Fighter, but if I did he definitely looks like inspiration for a beastly jungle fighter.

will you convert him?

Yep - got a DE Agoniser whip on the way, and will make a greenstuff cast of the hat on my T. rex rider. After that it's just a bit of greenstuff on a Catachan and he should be good to go.

Did a bunch tonight. Added a vane from the Wraithguard kit onto my Farseer to make him stand out more from the other converted Warlocks. While he was on the table I trimmed some lumpy greenstuff and smoothed out some of the paint from six years ago. Looks fresh! Eventually all of his converted Warlock buddies will get the same treatment.



Finished up my Spiritseer conversion. Had this Warlock extra (not painted like that, of course - I wish I was that good!):



And made it into this. The wash came out heavier than I would have liked, I'll probably tidy him up eventually.



Also finished his big buddy, the Wraithseer, just in time for Forge World to release their new Apocalypse book and make him worse (pricier missile launcher, reduced FNP for his psychic power). Here's the stages from concept to final. Note how much the torso was modified! I never liked the old Wraithlord 'giant head with stick limbs' look.









Also just ordered a bunch of Dwarf Ironbreakers to make my Squat unit. I still need two more, though - PM me if you have some you'd be willing to sell!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/06 04:12:24


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Youve got quite the eye for color pekel. The lime green is a great choice for a spot color and hhe wraith seer/lord? is really catching my eye. I like that your bone effects remind me more of bamboo or ivory, than bone persay. Lovely.

BBp


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/07 19:12:50


Post by: Pekel


Thanks! I like the idea of it resembling bamboo quite a bit. Seems very in-theme.

Finished a new terrain piece. Catachan JP Regiment vehicle gone missing en-route. Find the vehicle, determine if there are any survivors, and bring back the keg of Squat brew if it's still intact.



"...Shoot her! SHOOT HER!"


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/07 19:16:42


Post by: tinfoil


What a feast this thread is! I feel as though the doors to the toy store have been thrown open and I've been invited to explore!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/08 01:49:54


Post by: dsteingass


LOVE that cheap plastic jeep given new life!!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/08 02:35:20


Post by: Theophony


Great work with the ino riders
And someone has finally made elder cool, by injecting lego


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/12 17:50:08


Post by: Pekel


 tinfoil wrote:
What a feast this thread is! I feel as though the doors to the toy store have been thrown open and I've been invited to explore!

Haha, thanks! Seeing as my Eldar are Bionicle and Catachan are Jurassic Park, I was joking with my brother that I should have converted my Tyranids to resemble Pokemon so that all of our main childhood interests get some battlefield time. Then some guy with a Shedinja avatar sent me a free Zoanthrope to convert into a Doom of Malan'tai, so I couldn't resist!





Working on repainting my Rangers to make them nicer, and had completely forgotten how much converting I did on them. All the bare heads were replaced with Guardian helmets and one had a hood sculpted on. I googled to find a picture of the original models out of curiosity, and stumbled across this neat jungle-Catachan-Eldar photo. Figured I'd share.



Also have tons of bits on the way... for teleporting power-armor Squat warriors (Grey Knight Interceptor counts-as), the Catachan Brawlers and Knife Fighters, and the remaining bits needed for my six 'Crisis Suits.' Also assembled the base of my eight Eldar Temple Guardians (count-as Fire Warriors). They have blank faces and two lenses on the side to reflect the Fire Warrior helmets. Hopefully progress and photos soon!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/13 20:48:23


Post by: Pekel


Finally made a board to play on at the new house! I don't have a lot of room so I wanted something that disassembles easily for storage. I toyed with some plans using hinges and rods and things for support, but decided this was the cheapest and easiest. So here's how to make a collapsible $30 board.

Purchase three 2'x4' MDF boards, two pieces of 6' plywood, and 3' of adhesive Velcro. Assemble as shown.



Test fit. I plan on storing the boards stacked together to hopefully minimize their different curvatures.



With terrain and mat. The mat covers the slight uneven meeting points and they're barely noticeable.



Need to add some more green foliage and details to those terrain pieces, but looking good! For a very cheap and easy board, I'm happy with it. It comes apart easily and can be tucked behind a bookshelf for storage.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/17 16:02:06


Post by: Lucarikx


Awesome game table!

I like the subtle use of Bionicle pieces!

Lucarikx


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/21 03:31:39


Post by: Pekel


Thanks Lucarikx! Played our first game with the temple pieces - my brother should have some photos uploaded eventually. Here's all the terrain for the table together - still need to paint green mossy/moldy/algae splotches on the tan stone and add more flock. There's also three bases ready for more standard jungle foliage.



Plus the bits finally arrived for Queequeg, Friar Tuck, Tarzan, and Indiana Jones.



Still more sculpting details to do (Indy, for example, obviously needs a hat) but I'm really happy with them so far.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/21 09:25:28


Post by: TheDraconicLord


Wooaaa, that table looks awesome

And a Revolver too! Indy needs both a hat and a revolver!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/27 20:32:10


Post by: Pekel


 TheDraconicLord wrote:
Wooaaa, that table looks awesome

And a Revolver too! Indy needs both a hat and a revolver!

Thanks! I'm really thrilled with the table, and will be even more so soon. I've started painting more green on the temple stone and my two new backs of flock came in. Afraid Indy isn't getting a revolver, though - Arco-Flagellants only have a close combat weapon, and I'm trying to follow WYSIWYG basics for wargear.

Work on my Crisis Battlesuits. Still need a bit more greenstuff and neatening up, but they're all pretty close to done. The necks were elongated, midsections elongated, shoulders widened and dropped slightly, and feet enlarged. The end result is that they're decently larger than standard Wraithguard, especially given the posing and flying stands - and since my Wraithguard are the smaller metal ones, the difference is even more pronounced. I think they're perfectly acceptable for Tau Battlesuits. I've modified the Eldar weapons to look more like unique weapons, and I'll have 'counts-as' pages printed out in case opponents are confused with all the rules and wargear from the Tau Codex.

Once again, the inspiration. Can you match them to the 'Wraithsuits' below?















I also have finished conversions for the Brawlers, Knife Fighters, and a Squat 'Vindicare Sniper' model. Plus, FINALLY, some updates for the Tyranids!




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also - I REALLY REALLY need any of the following models! I'm making a Squat allied detachment and a sniper allied detachment, but need a few things.

I ordered six Ironbreakers off eBay, and though the delivery confirmation says they arrived at my apartment my brother insists he never got them. So I'm short money, and minis, and I can't get a refund because the confirmation says they arrived. If you can help out by donating or selling a few of these, I'd be thrilled!



I'm also looking for almost ANY metal snipers - especially Catachan but also Cadian, Vostroyan, or Space Marine Scout. I'm making two units and a special character to play as Illic Nightspear and two units of Pathfinders to ally with my Catachan. Most of them will be converted from plastics, but I'd like a few metals in there for diversity.









Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/08/28 16:24:18


Post by: Pekel


My four allied detachments are shaping up nicely. They're all 500 points even (Squat one can double up to 1000) which makes them real modular to tack onto existing lists. If my brother wants to play 2000 points, I can grab any 1500 list and throw on whatever seems like the most fun allied choice at the moment.

Catachan Genestealer Cult Detachment (from Codex: Grey Knights - two squads of Death Cult Assassins)
Catachan Squat Detachment (from Codex: Grey Knights - mostly varied Henchmen)
Catachan Deathworld Sniper Detachment (from Codex: Eldar - Illic Nightspear and two Pathfinder units)
Eldar Wraithsuit Detachment (from Codex: Tau Empire - six Crisis Battlesuits)

Here's an example of one of the fluff/rules pages I'm making, both for easy personal reference and to hand to an opponent to make all the rules available upfront.

Here's the very WIP model example - a Squat 'Vindicare Assassin' for my allied Squat force.



Squat Grudgebearer
(counts as Vindicare Assassin from Codex: Grey Knights)

Squats are masterful inventors and legendary grudge holders. These two traits come together in the race’s Grudgebearers. Thoroughly briefed on which enemies the largest grudges are held against, and equipped with arcane ‘Grudgebringer’ rifles, these solitary individuals stake out a spot and systematically take down their targets. By fiddling with the settings on their energy-based rifles they can blow the head off a particularly offensive enemy Warlord or penetrate the armor of a heretical tank held responsible for crushing a Squat Ancestor in ages past. Stoic and humorless, the Grudgebearers cross each ancient grudge off their list as its score is settled.

WS BS S T W I A Ld Sv
Grudgebearer 8 8 4 4 2 7 4 10 4+

UNIT TYPE: Infantry (Character).

WARGEAR: Frag Grenades, Defensive Grenades.

Stubborn Survivor:
Squat Grudgebearers will not lie down and die while they still have the strength to pull their trigger finger. They have a form of Feel No Pain, but the wounds are only ignored on a roll of 6.

Grudgebringer Weaponry: These weapons are specially crafted in the subterranean Squat workshop-fortresses, with multiple settings to ensure they can bring retribution to any target.

Grudgebringer Pistol*
Range Strength AP Type

12” X 1 Pistol, Sniper

Grudgebringer Rifle*
Range Strength AP Type
36” X 1 Heavy 1, Sniper

* Grudgebringer weapons have multiple settings. You must declare which setting you are using before rolling to hit, chosen from the following:

Tight Beam: The shot always wounds on a 2+.

Disruptor: When a wound from this round is allocated to a model, that model loses any invulnerable saves granted by items of wargear immediately, and for the rest of the battle. Remaining saves (if any) can then be taken.

Heavy Beam: A heavy beam shot inflicts 2 wounds on any non-vehicle model wounded, rather than 1. A heavy beam shot has an Armour Penetration of 4D6.

SPECIAL RULES: Move Through Cover, Fearless, Fleet, Stealth, Infiltrate.

Grudge List:
Wounds caused by a Squat Grudgebearer’s shooting attacks are always allocated by the model’s controlling player.

Energy Shield: A protective shield protects the Grudgebearer so that he can perform his grim task even in the face of the most powerful enemy fire. The Squat Grudgebearer has a 4+ invulnerable save.



Automatically Appended Next Post:
I don't care if nobody's posting in my topic! I'm on fire and you can't stop me!!!

Knife Fighters ready for priming:



Brawlers ready for priming:



Start of a Hearthguard (Grey Knight Interceptor). Still need two more of these models to complete the squad of ten, please help if you can!



Idea for leftover Tervigon bits:



And, finally, some real paint again.



I also fixed up the magnetic Trygon/Mawloc options and am touching up the paintjob. Been a busy few days off.

Plus I lucked out on an eBay auction. The Cult will keep growing...


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/09/03 06:33:58


Post by: Pekel


Finished the Mawloc. All the magnetic Mawloc parts have dirt on them, but the Trygon will be clean.



Magnetized Trygon bits should be touched up soon as well, and hopefully I can someday get the bits for a Prime version. I gave mine away - I knew giving away all my old Tyranid bits was a terrible idea!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/09/05 04:55:11


Post by: Pekel


First touched-up Infantry Platoon Squad.



Some of these were the first Catachan models I ever painted - feels good to tidy them up a bit.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/09/07 02:02:57


Post by: Two Spartan


Nice work man I love the characterful catachan and how you managed to use bionicle parts in the terrain and it looks great!



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/09/07 11:16:03


Post by: Illumini


Wow, this thread is filled to the brim with awesome. So much character in everything.

As hated as the GK codex was in 5th, it really is godsent for cool projects such as your squats.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/09/07 16:14:27


Post by: alabamaheretic


Really awesome man...your catachans are really awesome...what do you count the ankylosuarus as in your army?

the squat gk idea pretty awesome.

looking forward to more stuff man keeop up the awesome work


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/09/07 17:26:33


Post by: Veteran Sergeant


I love everything about this thread.

Junglenids.
Jurassic Catachans.
Squats(!)
Genstealer Cult(!)
Eldar that actually look cool...

And that terrain is pretty awesome too.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/09/11 06:01:28


Post by: Pekel


Thanks everyone! Really great to come back to all the compliments. Glad you're enjoying the show.

 alabamaheretic wrote:
what do you count the ankylosuarus as in your army?

I don't have the model made - just that quick-and-dirty Photoshop. I'd probably use it as another Chimera-variant tank, like a Manticore or Griffon. It looks real neat but I can't justify buying it. Someday, though, I might be able to justify a Troglodon as a Dreadknight...

Before the current Codex was released my brother pre-ordered a Pyrovore model for me, since it looked neat. Once the rules came out something needed to be done, so I modded it to look more like a Hive Guard - covered the eyes, removed the venom sack, and changed the flamespurter into a spike launcher. Because the Pyrovore model is so expensive I never got more than two of the models total, and pretty much never use them in lists. Guess that makes me pretty unusual as a Tyranid player - one Tervigon and very rarely using any Hive Guard at all. But here those two are, at long last! I wish the models fit better onto the base (the one on the left in particular is barely on there), but I'm happy with them overall.



Wrote up an allied Eldar list for my Catachan, since I really wanted to reflect the fluff that Catachan have elite sniper cadres. The 500pt list is Illic Nightspear, two units of five Pathfinders, and five Striking Scorpions (one an Exarch with biting blade). The Scorpions filled the 500pts out perfectly, have Catachan stealth-infiltrate character, allow me to use a chainsaw I converted up a while back, and give the army a bit of beat-'em-up attitude. The models will have displacement fields to represent the 3+ save without making them look too armored.

Here's the snipers so far. From left to right: guy wading through water, techy radio guy, Muldoon from Jurassic Park (with in-progress shorts and socks - counts as Illic), mohawk girl, night vision goggle guy, and the lazy bum. The remaining five snipers will be the three metal Catachan snipers, a Larkin model, and my current converted metal sniper.



Also finished pretty much all my other WIP models and have them ready for priming: the Eldar allies (six Battlesuits and eight Fire Warriors), the Brawlers, the Knife Fighters, and the Squat sniper. Plus I have a little commission job. Going to be busy!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/09/11 16:51:03


Post by: Talore


Okay, everything in this thread is amazing but I still can't get over the Bionicle Eldar. Stuff like that is why I love this hobby. Keep up the awesome!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/09/11 21:07:15


Post by: MauS


Exalted, subbed, and in awe...


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/09/23 17:36:26


Post by: Pekel


 Talore wrote:
Okay, everything in this thread is amazing but I still can't get over the Bionicle Eldar. Stuff like that is why I love this hobby. Keep up the awesome!

Trying to keep it up. Here's the Crisis Battlesuits ('Toa Wraithsuits') with some basecoats!



And here's the eight Fire Warriors ('Temple Guardians') with some Desert Yellow splatted on. I wanted them to look more armored and less accurate than Guardians to better represent Fire Warriors. I added some bulk in the shoulders and with the topknots, then smoothed over the Guardian faces to imply extra armor. The lenses on the sides of the helmet are also more visually 'Fire Warrior' than a normal Guardian helm. Figure having armored faces and seeing through helmet-cams would make them a little better armored but make it harder for them to aim. Still not sure how to paint the topknots and shoulder fur - I'm thinking leopard print would be fun.



And more Catachan allies. First a better picture of Illic Nightspear ('Robert Muldoon'). Still missing the sheathed sword for his back... not sure where I placed the bit.



The Striking Scorpions ('Deathworld Assault Squad'). Still need to greenstuff on their displacement fields for the 3+ save, and the throwing knife on the one guy looks wonky. Can you tell i love Space Wolf heads?



Now that I have excellent snipers and some proficient close-combat fighters, the only thing missing for a fluffy Catachan army was booby traps. How could I represent booby traps legally using existing units? I finally figured I could build a forward sentries tower on a Basilisk-sized base. If I left it stationary all game, I could justify it as the Catachan detonating a booby trap in the battlefield every turn for the shooting attack. Instead of measuring range from the gun barrel, I would measure it from a spotter in the tower with binoculars. I also needed a heavy bolter for the Basilisk's hull-mounted weapon, which finally gave me an excuse to make and use this guy:



But then I found the Forge World rules for an Earthshaker emplacement, and realized the rules made much more sense for a stationary spotter tower. So now I need to find a new use for the guy above.

Also painting the Knife Fighters, Brawlers, and Squat sniper. Plus some Tallarn models on commission. Busy times!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/09/23 17:41:45


Post by: Lucarikx


Good to see more stuff from you

Have you considered putting Kanohi on the Fire Warriors? A press mold could make the process really fast

Can't wait for more!

Lucarikx


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/09/23 19:28:42


Post by: Scrazza


Nice, you've made some great models with lots of personality.



Subbed!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/09/24 18:22:17


Post by: ghostmaker


Cool stuff keep up the work!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/09/26 06:42:32


Post by: Pekel


 Lucarikx wrote:
Have you considered putting Kanohi on the Fire Warriors? A press mold could make the process really fast

I did, but didn't want to go too crazy on them. The faces will have the Bionicle symbols for different principles painted on them, taken from this image.

Continuing on a bunch of fronts, but finished some paint!

Finally, the Brawlers (Arco-Flagellants)!



And the Knife Fighters (Death Cult Assassins)!



Also started mocking up the Forward Sentries Spotter Tower (Earthshaker Artillery).



The flat wood strips are from a bamboo blind I bought to cover my terrain. It was all on a shelving cabinet with no doors, and I didn't want the terrain to get dusty. I chopped up the blinds to fit the shelves, and used leftovers to cover a clear glass cabinet door holding other minis. It's no secret I'm into 40k, but I really don't want to explain the game to everyone who comes over for a drink - so having everything hide away is nice. Here's the entirety of my 40k models, books, gaming materials, and terrain - the board collapses and is hidden behind another shelf (and the beetle cloth is temporary, needing something visually interesting and I had nothing else - I'm a zoology major, what can I say?).



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/09/26 07:07:46


Post by: ph34r


I love the extensive conversions. Some of the bionicle stuff is a bit silly but it's not terribly OTT and you pull it off with clean conversions and paintwork. Same for the pokemon, you really pulled it off for the zoanthrope.

The catachans are all really characterful, especially with a huge number of them being converted. I'm a big fan of the tan/bone on the eldar too, great color and the lime green on your wraithseer looks good.

Keep it up!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/09/26 19:06:02


Post by: privateherbert24


This blog is a 90's child's dream come true. I think I love you.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/10/14 16:16:45


Post by: Pekel


My brother posted this on Warseer, but since I don't think he's a member of Dakka I figured I'd share it here.

Firedrake Thomas;6950994 wrote:Hey guys, don't remember if I've introduced myself here yet but I'm Pekel's little brother (and main opponent). I own the Firedrakes SM chapter, often featured as dead marines or exploded tank bits on Hive Fleet Cyclone's bases, and the the Ork and DE armies also featured on this Plog.

For the past year or so I've been taking battle shots during our games, mostly to look at later on and remember the games that we've played. It's actually really fun to go through my folders and see crazy game moments that we had both forgotten about. It's also a great way of showcasing the models- most things look a lot cooler when they're out charging across the field than they do standing against a white background. Last night I finally got around to uploading pictures from our last couple battles, so I have plenty of pictures to share of Pekel's armies in action. I'll post them from one battle at a time, starting today with a game versus my Orks.

The game was 1500 pts, my Ork Heavy themed list (lots of vehicles, 'ard boyz and meganobs as troops) versus Pekel's Tyranid Fast themed list (lots of wings, mycetic spores, etc). We play themed lists often just for the fun of it, usually not the most competitive lists but they do make for good games.

Tyranid army:


Ork army:


Assault warriors pop out of a spore pod behind my looted wagon:


Deff Dread assaults two remaining genestealers:


Flyrant goes for the Battlewagon (I know this didn't end well for me)


Ymgarly 'stealers get filled with Dakka:


Killa kan confronts assault Warriors


Victory went to heavy orks. Next time, Pekel! I'll be posting more battle shots every now and then, hope you enjoy the pics.



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/10/16 02:45:55


Post by: Pekel


Done some more work on a bunch of things - Eldar Wraithsuits and Temple Guardians almost finished with paint, finished off the temple terrain, and a bunch either ready or almost ready for primer.

Here's the Deathworld Assault Squad (Striking Scorpions). Sorry for the blurry photo.





Here's the Squat Tinkerers (Jokaero). Still need some very minor bits and greenstuff before priming.



The almost-ready Spotter Tower (Earthshaker Artillery). Still needs detailing.



Plus Sniper Muldoon (Illic Nightspear) and the Deathworld Snipers (Pathfinders) are ready for primer. Played two more games with my brother. He has a HUGE backlog of battle photos, hopefully he'll post more soon!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/10/20 21:34:36


Post by: Pekel


My can of primer refused to work after I had laid everything out for priming. Very frustrating! Until I can get a new one, I'll be continuing to convert up my remaining models.

Spotter tower with all the details! Servo skull, spotter scope, and scattered little IG details. Will be great to use both as an Earthshaker artillery piece or just terrain.



Finally getting the Squats close to finished. Most still need their shields and storm bolters.

Squat Hearthguard (Grey Knight Interceptor) squad leader, with Nemesis force sword:



Squat Hearthguard with thunder hammers:



Squat Hearthguard with beam rifles (psycannons):



Squat Hearthguard with standard equipment:



And the Jokaero:



Should get that primer on Tuesday!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/10/23 02:40:02


Post by: Pekel


The sniper detachment and spotter tower are primed! Also finished my allied Temple Guardians (Fire Warriors):



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/10/23 02:53:18


Post by: bebopdrums2424


looking fab as usual pekel!!

BB


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/10/29 21:59:41


Post by: Pekel


Thanks bebopdrums!

Still making progress on lots of things, but nothing finished to share. My brother posted this on Warseer, though!

Firedrake Thomas;6966489 wrote:Alright, got some more battle shots! These are from two battles played a couple weeks ago- one was Eldar v Tyranids, other was Catachan v Tyranids. Here are a couple shots from the games.









And from the other game:









To see more pics from the full galleries, see here and here. Enjoy!





Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/11/09 22:22:11


Post by: Pekel


FINALLY finished the first models in my allied Eldar detachment. Great way to reflect the snipers that Catachan are supposed to have in the fluff.

Master Sniper Muldoon (Illic Nightspear):



Deathworld Snipers (Pathfinders)



I have five more snipers and five close-combat guys almost done. Expect more updates soon!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/11/10 14:55:05


Post by: Paradigm


Awesome work. Dino-tanks, Bionicle-Dar, Catachan-dar? Epic.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/11/10 16:58:12


Post by: bebopdrums2424


You know im your biggest fan Pekel. We are jungle brothers


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/11/11 04:57:30


Post by: Pekel


 bebopdrums2424 wrote:
You know im your biggest fan Pekel. We are jungle brothers

Haha, appreciate it. Hope NYC's treating you well, was just down for Halloween.

To go with my 'Eldar Pathfinder' Catachan snipers, I wanted some stealthy choppy dudes. Striking Scorpions fit the bill, so to justify the 3+save I modeled displacer field vests. Much stealthier than power armor.





EDIT: Chainsaw dude is an Exarch with Biting Blade, all their throwing knives are the Mandiblaster attacks in cc.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/11/11 16:05:38


Post by: Moltar


Those dudes look hardcore. The guy throwing the knife looks really good and the exarch is a total beast.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/11/11 16:19:56


Post by: bebopdrums2424


 Pekel wrote:
 bebopdrums2424 wrote:
You know im your biggest fan Pekel. We are jungle brothers

Haha, appreciate it. Hope NYC's treating you well, was just down for Halloween.


why ON EARTH would you COME to nyc for halloween. i FLEE!!!



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/11/18 03:25:52


Post by: Pekel


 bebopdrums2424 wrote:
why ON EARTH would you COME to nyc for halloween. i FLEE!!!

Good concert with friends. Was worth it, managed to avoid the big crowds.

Last five snipers almost done. Spotter tower almost done. 12 Squats and a Genestealer Patriarch ready to prime. And my 'Crisis Suit' allies are done at long last!

I imagine these guys are an experiment in Wraith technology, called Wraithsuits. The Spirit Stones of living Eldar are placed on them, and they are occupied by these souls. The soulless husks of bodies remain safe, held in the Craftworld with no sign of life except for the basics of breathing and circulation. If a Wraithsuit is destroyed in battle the body lives on, an empty shell, until it dies of starvation and is disposed of. Some Eldar become intoxicated with the power of a Wraithsuit, choosing to live their lives in the artificial shell until their natural body dies and traps them on the path forever. These 'Lost Ones' lead squads of Wraithsuits into combat.

Of course, they were really just an excuse for me to convert and paint up the most iconic Bionicle characters for nostalgia's sake.

Team Wairuha: Flamers and twin-linked burst cannons (couldn't model two, so the scope makes the gun twin-linked).





Team Akamai: Fusion blasters, plasma rifles, advanced targeting systems (the green lenses on the heads). Red guy is a 'Lost One' (Commander) with Onager Gauntlet (fire sword), Shield Generator, Neuroweb System Jammer, Repulsor Impact Field, Shield Drone.





To show they're definitely noticeably bigger than my Wraithguard:



Being protected by the Temple Guard (Fire Warriors):



EDIT: Added pictures of the toys they're modeled after. The pictures are dark, my crazy bright colors are actually much closer to the real thing.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/11/21 03:06:33


Post by: Pekel


Alright, last dudes weren't too popular... how about more Catachan? I wanted a way to represent the Catachan love of booby traps, so made this spotter tower to count as an Earthshaker artillery piece. Guy up in the tower, armed with a scope, calls down to someone on the ground with coordinates. You can see the wire leading from the tower to the ground station - no radio frequencies for enemies to intercept. Guy on the ground triggers the appropriate booby trap, laid before the battle. Boom! S9 AP3 blast, hopefully with the coordinates accurate enough to cause some damage.



I have four crewmen in progress. Might also touch up the tower a bit more when they're done, but it's good for now. I did my best to have the height, footprint and overall size fit the Forge World Earthshaker model.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/11/21 03:15:42


Post by: Color Sgt. Kell


Wow. You have no idea how much respect I have for this thread. Bionicles were the biggest thing when I was younger and I had almost every single one. Plus I play catachans and its great to see some nicely painted and based jungle dudes, along with the awesome dinosaurs and jurrassic park conversions. I tip my hat to you sir!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/11/21 16:03:53


Post by: sparkywtf


I love that earthshaker. Great way to represent it in a way that fights the Catachans.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/11/30 20:08:34


Post by: Pekel


 Color Sgt. Kell wrote:
Wow. You have no idea how much respect I have for this thread. Bionicles were the biggest thing when I was younger and I had almost every single one. Plus I play catachans and its great to see some nicely painted and based jungle dudes, along with the awesome dinosaurs and jurrassic park conversions. I tip my hat to you sir!

Thanks! Always nice to hear from people who like the Bionicle theme.

I have a lot of things in progress, including some non-jungle commission work. The Mechanicus Squat allies in particular are coming along really well. For now, though, here's some more battle pictures. My brother uploaded all of them now so I thought I'd share some of the best.











Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/11/30 20:34:28


Post by: jeeb_sound


great models but also verymuch love the terrain in these pics, was kind of wondering where some of the pieces had come from/been made?


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/12/05 00:40:59


Post by: Pekel


 jeeb_sound wrote:
great models but also verymuch love the terrain in these pics, was kind of wondering where some of the pieces had come from/been made?

The Ratlings are up in an old GW terrain piece mostly made from cardstock - still need to paint the plastic parts and touch up the card. I want to add some glue around the exposed card edges to keep it from splitting or fraying.

The fence terrain is from Warmill, who I actually found out about on Dakka. I highly recommend both the product and the customer service.

http://www.warmill.co.uk/

A lot of the other terrain was made from scratch. Old toys, tinfoil, bandage gauze, lake sand and aquarium plants make up most of it. If you want specifics on any, let me know - I have WIP shots for all of the home-made terrain!

Here's some more - I'm trying to break the battleshots up so I don't have one enormous post. I'll have another set with a bunch of Tyranids soon.












Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/12/09 17:20:00


Post by: hdbbstephen


Brilliantly creative work here, I am amazed and inspired! Thanks for sharing this... I have some new ideas now...


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/12/12 03:06:53


Post by: Pekel


 hdbbstephen wrote:
Brilliantly creative work here, I am amazed and inspired! Thanks for sharing this... I have some new ideas now...

Great! Please feel free to share in this topic if you get around to posting.

Last batch of battleshots for a while. Tyranids!
























Making good progress on all the Squats, as well as finishing up the snipers, and doing some Celestial Lions stuff on commission.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/12/13 03:07:20


Post by: Pekel


EDIT: Originally had pictures of a commission project here, but I decided now to keep my commission projects separate since I have a few more down the pipeline. You can find a link to my commission thread in my signature now.

But there is some progress on my own guys! The near-finished snipers and a bunch of Squats getting their Mechanicus colors. Horrible photo, but I promise I'll have better ones when they're done.





Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/12/14 18:05:58


Post by: Moltar


Love the action shots from that Jungle board


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/12/22 04:34:21


Post by: Veteran Sergeant


The Catachan Earthshaker tower is pretty great.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2013/12/22 23:03:17


Post by: Pekel


Thanks guys! Finally finished the snipers, meaning that 500pt allied detachment is done. May use them on a Christmas day battle.



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/01/11 21:14:39


Post by: Pekel


Been doing a bunch of commission work and slowly chipping away at all my Squats, but this has also been taking up my time. I was sick of having to scroll up and down pdf documents in the middle of every game to find every tiny rule for an allied unit, so I decided to consolidate each unit's rules onto one page. Then I figured I should add photos. Then, for formatting reasons, I decided to fill in the blank spaces with some little fluff boxes. The result is pretty much a full Codex Supplement for all of my allied models not in the main parent Codexes.

The cover is still WIP, but this is the basic look of it.



And here's what the inside looks like.



It'll probably be something like 25 pages once I add a fluff page for each army. Really looking forward to finishing it up and printing it out!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/01/12 20:54:13


Post by: bebopdrums2424


AWESOME. how did you do this? Ive wanted to make a codex for my kroot.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/01/12 21:31:30


Post by: deadmeat85


Just found this thread and its PURE WIN!!!!

Catachans are my fave. Need more dinos though.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/01/13 00:36:03


Post by: Pekel


 bebopdrums2424 wrote:
AWESOME. how did you do this? Ive wanted to make a codex for my kroot.

Just a simple Microsoft Word document! It's still in progress, but if anyone wants to look at it and use it as a template for their own book, or give advice and feedback, I'd be more than happy to email it out. Just shoot me a message at p.h.dolan at gmail and it's yours. I'd particularly love to see some counts-as models as you expand your Kroot - Eldar are Battle Brothers with Tau, and open up lots of fun ideas. Rangers would be great as camouflaged Kroot with sniper rifles, winged Kroot could be Swooping Hawks, and Heavy Weapon Platforms would be great Krootox artillery beasts. One thing I'm still waiting to see, though, is a Greater Knarloc counts-as Riptide. Get on it!

Thanks deadmeat85! I'd love more dinosaurs, too... particularly Terradon-riding Catachan. The models are just getting more and more expensive - like many people, GW is slowly pricing me out. The Terradons are far too expensive and the new Tyranid kits are absolutely criminal.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/01/20 05:26:23


Post by: Pekel


Sorry this isn't 100% Warhammer related, but I'm having a really frustrating tech problem. I have background images loaded on a bunch of my Microsoft Word 40k documents (Background > Fill Effects > Picture) and they look fine in the document itself. When I try to print or convert to a pdf, however, the picture scales up huge. You can see from the inset print preview window that the upper-left corner of the background blows up and covers a lot of the text.



When I get back on my own computer I can try to resize the background images to fit appropriately, but it's really annoying because it's already scaled to fit the background. Is there anything I can do to simply get the document to print looking like it does on the computer? Why don't these images have a visible option to auto-size to fit the page?

Thanks for any input, it's really been pretty frustrating!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/02/02 05:51:05


Post by: Pekel


FINALLY have some Squats finished!

Here's my old Engineseer, slightly touched up:



And my Tinkerers (Jokaero):



The Grudgebearer (Vindicare Assassin) beard looks pretty lousy in this photo... might have to go back and do a better job on it:



The main even, the squad of ten Hearthguard, should be ready before too long. They're very close to completion, just a few details left.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/02/02 17:18:06


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Great stuff, pekel. Always watching what you come up with!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/02/02 17:59:09


Post by: Llamahead


If GW prices are a problem why not use none GW dinosaurs. I'm sure you could find some good quality Dinosaur toys to convert.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/02/15 02:24:08


Post by: Pekel


bebopdrums2424 wrote:Great stuff, pekel. Always watching what you come up with!

Thanks bebop - same to you!

Llamahead wrote:If GW prices are a problem why not use none GW dinosaurs. I'm sure you could find some good quality Dinosaur toys to convert.

I have in the past, for the Triceratops mortar tank and the Tyrannosaur Sentinel. I just really like the official Terradon models.

Finally finished my main Squat guys!

Squat Hearthguard with teleport packs (Grey Knight Interceptors):



Squad leader and decorative standard:



Thunder Hammers:



Psycannons:



Storm Bolters:



Still need to finish their terrain piece to defend - the entrance to their underground Workshop-Fortress:



I cast up a big Mechanicus symbol to cover the ugly rock bit. Should look pretty good.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/02/17 00:29:53


Post by: Pekel


Finished my Red Terror. The new Codex came out just in time - I had him stored with some rending claws so I could re-arm him (literally) to field as another normal Ravener. Luckily I held off on tearing him apart until the new Codex.

Originally, many years ago, he was the Yellow Terror - I decided to go for a subdued red eventually.





Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/02/20 00:57:37


Post by: Pekel


Finished the Squat terrain! I figure these Squat Fortress-Workshops would be mostly underground, with armored entrances sticking up around the landscape. Though the Squats on Verdekil XVIII rarely leave these workshops, when they're threatened they respond in force. Heavily armored Hearthguard teleport to the surface like hornets from a disturbed nest and lend their strength to the Catachan defense. As soon as the threat is passed, the Hearthguard vanish back underground.





I've thought about playing it as a Void Shield Generator to represent the defenses around these Fortress-Workshop entrances, but I'll probably just use it as normal a normal objective/terrain piece except in Apocalypse battles.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
My brother's coming up for the weekend and he's going to take my Catachan on a jungle bug hunt. I touched up their quarry in anticipation of our first ever Escalation game. The light made some parts shine out too much, and the glue isn't dry on some of the flock so it sticks out as really bright green, but it's good enough.



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/02/20 18:52:37


Post by: EyeamRai


WOW! All of your guys = fantastic! I cannot wait to see more.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/02/24 03:24:39


Post by: Pekel


EyeamRai wrote:
WOW! All of your guys = fantastic! I cannot wait to see more.

Thank you!

Here's a Tyranid Vengeance Weapon Battery with battle cannon. So glad Tyranids can use fortifications now.



I originally converted it as an Exocrine, long before we had an official model for one, and used the rules from an IG Basilisk in Apocalypse battles. Now that we have a real Exocrine, and can take Fortifications, this seems a much better use of the model.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/02/28 04:47:43


Post by: Freytag93


Wow, that's an amazing conversion. I love the head. What is that from? It looks like one of the xenomorphs from Alien.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/02/28 19:06:26


Post by: Pekel


 Freytag93 wrote:
Wow, that's an amazing conversion. I love the head. What is that from? It looks like one of the xenomorphs from Alien.

Thanks - it was originally one of these toys. I ripped off all the legs and put the larger ones in front for a more upright-artillery-posture, sculpted the gun and chest carapace from Sculpey, tore off the horn and sculpted an eye (the horn later wound up on the shoulder of a Nurgle Dreadnought commission), and added Tyranid bits.



I think it came out well. I also used an Aliens toy for my old flyer conversion.





Really wish I kept that as a Harpy!

Here's some shots from my first Escalation game the past weekend. Was tons of fun, felt balanced, and we wound up pulling a tie. Looking forward to more! In case you're wondering about the Spore Pod, my brother and I are still using units from the old Codex that didn't get new entries. We figure they're not broken and open up a lot of fun options to the blander new book.

Hierodule advances.



The Eldar have arrived to cleanse the Tyranid infestation from their ancient ruins.



The Avatar almost survived... only to have the final Stomp attack roll a 6 and strike at Strength D.



The Meicetic Spore flails wildly to protect its baby Gaunts, who get torched with double flamethrowers.



The Tyranid 'fortification' does little all game, its battle cannon shots usually scattering wildly (though it did demolish a Wraithguard squad), but it provides a good punching bag for the Wraithlord and Wraithseer.



Next up, photos of Squats versus Tyranids!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/03/01 16:37:41


Post by: Moltar


Great update. I like the action shots


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/03/01 16:55:13


Post by: Warboss_Waaazag


Your squats look absolutely amazing. Great stuff!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/03/02 21:30:14


Post by: Pekel


Next battle...

The Catachan holed up in their outpost, with the Squats and some Henchmen outside the fence to assault the Nids and hold them off.



The Squats (Grey Knight Interceptors) head straight for the winged Tyrant, hoping to instant-kill it with their Nemesis Thunder Hammers. The Knife Fighters (Death Cult Assassins), Brawlers (Arco-Flagellants) and Vengeance Gang (Crusaders with Coteaz) aim to head off the Shrikes and Raveners.



Turns out Shadow in the Warp really messes with Hammerhand, and the Tyrant's high leadership makes it impossible to instant-kill. Red Terror dives in and swallows the Squat Ancestor (sergeant) leading the squad.



Catachan Power Loader (Grey Knight Dreadnought) hangs back and pumps multi-melta shots into the Trygon, while everyone else changes direction to go save the Squats.



*Jurassic Park quote* "Shoot her... shoot her!"



Meicetic Spore slams down and disgorges a brood of close-combat Warriors. Tarzan dies and can be seen ascending to join the Emperor.



The Vengeance Gang, with their looted power weapons and shields, change into combat with a strength bump from Hammerhand. They take down two Raveners. Only one Squat remains, ready to join his ancestors in the bellies of the Tyranids. As we all know, history repeats itself...



The Warriors make it to the Spotter Tower (Earthshaker Artillery) and shred the crew.



*Aliens quote* "Get away from her, you b*tch!"



The Squat Tinkerers (Jokaero) do nothing with their shooting all game, but when the the Trygon assaults they slam two multi-melta overwatch shots into it and stop it dead in its tracks. A lot of hooting and hollering ensued.



Last turn. By the end of it, the only survivor on the Catachan side was the Squat Company Commander. Needless to say, an overwhelming Tyranid victory for my brother.



Also, been playing around with the new Knight in Photoshop. Looking to combine the Squat, Catachan and Mechanicus aesthetics into one model. Going to have its name be 'Carno Taurus' (aka the Meat Bull) and hoping to have some magnetic bits to play around with the look and armament. The House Crest on the torso shield is a recolored version of my family crest.





Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/03/05 05:28:07


Post by: Pekel


Just finished a brood of Tyranid Warriors. These were made two editions ago when Warriors could take a 'leaping' biomorph. The Genestealer acid maw heads (from when those were also a real biomorph) represent toxin sacs.



Will have some Raveners done soon. Also just ordered a Wraithknight, which will get some very heavy converting.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/03/06 06:51:35


Post by: Freytag93


The battlereport was great. It's always nice to see those. Unfortunately, it always seems like the squats like to die to nids.
The warriors look good. I like the highlighting on the armor. I'm currently stuck on fixing my color scheme for my own nids, and these guys look pretty inspiring.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/03/07 05:19:20


Post by: Pekel


 Freytag93 wrote:
I'm currently stuck on fixing my color scheme for my own nids, and these guys look pretty inspiring.

If you like it, feel free to adopt it! I'd love to see a brother Splinter Fleet.

Touched up my old Raveners.



I think I'll do my Striking Scorpions next.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/03/10 03:38:18


Post by: Pekel


Striking Scorpions are almost done, but I have something else I've finally started on. I was initially disappointed with the Wraithknight model, since I was hoping for less of a giant Wraithlord and more of this:



So I played a bit with the new model in Photoshop.

Original:



Conversion:





And I finally got started on it!



Still figuring out how to handle the tiny feet, but I'm on it.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/03/17 22:32:13


Post by: Pekel


Here's the Revenant Scout Titan with a coat of primer. I still plan on smoothing out some greenstuff and adding some more bits, but it gives a sense of how it resembles the original Epic model.



Pretty happy so far. Wish I had another Wraithknight fin to put vertical! I might mess with the existing ones a bit to make them more prominent.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/03/18 20:24:29


Post by: Moltar


That is impressive! Great idea and solid execution


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/03/20 23:54:14


Post by: Ashiraya


Bionicledar?

You win. Have all my exalts.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/03/21 02:01:33


Post by: Pekel


Added some more bits, smoothed some gaps, and started painting!




Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/03/25 00:50:32


Post by: Pekel


Touched up my Striking Scorpions. I thought they looked a little flat and plain, so I gave them an Agrax Earthshade wash with new bone highlights and picked out some details in copper.

Before:



After:



Also, my Revenant Scout Titan has an Imperial buddy now! Everybody meet my Freeblade, Carno Taurus (the Catachan call him 'Meat Bull').




Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/03/25 03:03:53


Post by: ghostmaker


Great stuff love the clever girl sniper and all your work!!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/03/25 06:40:55


Post by: HoeJarris


Really liking that revenant scout titan! It looks just like the Epic version!
Also those Striking Scorpions look brilliant!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/03/29 22:32:54


Post by: Pekel


Thanks guys. Went back to fill in and scrape down some minor gaps in the Revenant Scout Titan, so it set my progress back a lot but I'm much happier with the result.

The Knight is almost ready for priming. Here's a Photoshop of how it'll look:



The carnivore pelt and Wraithknight hand nailed to the shoulder were the last things I added. They might be a bit much, so I'm gonna have them easy to remove if I decide I don't like them during painting.

Excited to get started!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/03/31 04:20:51


Post by: Pekel


Got the base colors on my Knight. It was fun developing the character of the Knight by having conversion ideas inspire the fluff, and in turn having the fluff inspire further conversions.

Here he is so far. I see him as a ragged big-game hunter who roams the jungle claiming trophies until he gets Imperial pleas for aid, at which point he comes crashing out of the jungle to slaughter the impetuous xenos. I think I'll always keep him in reserve just to represent this.

Hard to see in this shot, but he has a billowing cloak of torn camo netting. Also has a Tyrannofex head tied to his battle cannon, and a Wraithknight hand nailed to his right pauldron.



Lots more little details are coming. Been a total blast so far!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/03/31 05:59:50


Post by: deadmeat85


The Tyrannofex head on the cannon is by far the best part of the model. The fluff behind it is even better.

I just don't think the wraith-knight hand should be where it is. Maybe placed lower on the shoulder? I'm not quite sure where it would look better.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/03/31 06:12:16


Post by: Warboss_Waaazag


Going to have to agree with deadmeat on this one. The tyrannofex head looks awesome. The wraith hand, not so much. Maybe it will look better when the paint job is finished?


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/04/06 00:35:11


Post by: Pekel


I agree completely about the Wraithknight hand. I spent a lot of time trying it in different places, and that seemed to work best. I still left it on with only the tinist dab of glue, so I can pop it off if I find a better place for it. It does look better from a higher angle, though, like you'd normally see when playing a game.

Still work in progress, but here's Meat Bull so far. Missing a lot of depth on the green and metal areas, plus tons of details.



And didn't realize a progress shot was so overdue for the Revenant Scout Titan. That model is almost done too.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/04/06 04:42:52


Post by: Darth Bob


The JP-themed Catachans are absolutely brilliant. I also love the Bionicle Eldar.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/04/07 16:32:06


Post by: Pekel


Still WIP, but getting there - here's the Revenant Scout Titan.



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/04/07 19:18:54


Post by: EyeamRai


This is so great. I love the pic w Tarzan ascending to join the Emperor. Your two big guys are coming along swimmingly!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/04/25 17:22:08


Post by: Pekel


The new Wood Elf fantasy minis are giving me naughty urges. I want to make a Daemons army for 40k using the Treemen and Dryads. Then I can have my Catachan on patrol ambushed by warp-tainted jungle coming to life and attacking. Or I can fight my brother, with Eldar defending a warp gate against Catachan attack, as the warp energy leaks out and both sides are randomly attacked by living jungle. Just deep strike the Daemons, scattering far, off the center of the board. Then have them move towards and assault the nearest models.

I mean, look at this thing! Just wanna jungle it up and have it stagger out of a stand of trees to smash my tanks!



Anyhow, my brother posted some battle photos on my Warseer log. The Knight is about 95% done - I'll get pictures up here when it's complete. I'm also constantly in the process of adding more foliage to my terrain, so expect the moss and greenery to keep creeping in future shots. Note the retro spike ball plants, after years of wanting to make them!

Firedrake Thomas;7137345 wrote:So both Pekel's wonderful Knight and Wraithknight saw action on the field last week, and I had the pleasure of going up against them. Two fun games, and I managed to get some fun battle shots from them both. Right now I have pictures from the first game: Tyranids v. Catachan & Knight. The knight performed admirably, until it was blown up by a Zoanthrope warp blast. Here are some of my favorite shots from the game:

Ratlings snipe the Nids out from behind the skeleton of some crazy beast:


Vendetta Hovers in behind the Trygon:


Trygon destroys Leman Russ:


Faceoff:


Knight gets swarmed by Ymgarl 'Stealers (but stomps them all in combat)


Shrikes launch an assault:


Captain Badass strides toward the assaulting Genestealers (killed immediately):


See all the pictures from the battle HERE.

More pics to come soon from the second battle- Catachan v. Eldar with Wraithknight!


My additions:

The tank (triceratops?)-killing Harpy.



I call this one "Sexual Tension."



Zoanthrope presumably tosses down his Marine rag doll buddy to make the Titan kill shot.



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/04/26 23:55:59


Post by: Pekel


The Knight is pretty much done! Carno Taurus, or "Meat Bull," is one of my favorite models. I always start him in reserve even though it's a lousy strategy simply because I love him going all Kool Aid Man and crashing out of the jungle mid-battle yelling "OOOOOHHHHH YEAH" and blowing stuff up.



Here's a mediocre picture (the Freeblade icon behind the head, for example, is a washed-out white blob instead of a richly-shaded and lovingly highlighted work of art). I tried to tie him to my Catachan army without blatantly painting him like a big Catachan vehicle. Things like the yellow 'bandana' stripe painted around the head, and a Catachan Fang knife attached to his leg, show that he's been made an honorary member of the regiment beyond simply being attached to them for a campaign.



I also finished the Eldar Wraithknight conversion, so I'll post that later.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/04/27 01:19:57


Post by: deadmeat85


This has to be the best Knight Titan I have seen so far. Back story and what you did to it fits so well.

A+ #1


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/04/27 21:33:51


Post by: Pekel


 deadmeat85 wrote:
This has to be the best Knight Titan I have seen so far. Back story and what you did to it fits so well.

Thanks! I really wanted to convey the big-game hunter survivalist feel to him.

My babies are (pretty much) done. Nothing is ever really done, though...





I decided I'm going to buy a new Treeman and box of Dryads to make daemonic jungle trees. I'll also have a Warpwood Psyker I can play to control them and add 500pts of daemonic allies to my Catachan. I have an overgrown jungle Webway Portal terrain piece, so fluff is that the warp influence is leaking through the damaged portal. This is pretty much just an excuse for patches of jungle to randomly come to life and spice games up.

Could anybody help make a solid 450pt Daemons of Chaos list, with at least two monstrous creatures? Anything else goes. The more fun wacky stuff, the better. Plan is to usually have them scatter far off the center of the board and move towards/shoot/assault the nearest unit.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/04/27 21:35:12


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Such awesome stuff Pekel!! Wow man, youre creativity and the length you go with your vision always inspires me!
Cheers man
BB


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/05/06 03:49:33


Post by: Pekel


Thanks bebop!

Finished my Genestealer Patriarch. He plays as a psychic Inquisitor in Terminator armor when he's allying with my Guard.




Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/05/06 05:35:26


Post by: sir william the bold


Did I see a Marro Hive? Love the work you've done on this thread! Keep up the good work


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/05/24 02:39:30


Post by: Pekel


 sir william the bold wrote:
Did I see a Marro Hive?

Yup! Makes a great, cheap Tyranid terrain piece.

That being said, when your terrain is all themed as a jungle covered in scattered temple ruins and potentially leaky warp gates, what do you model your daemons as?



TREES! And shrubs! And maybe eventually some skeletons that get summoned from their tombs under the temples! Because this following scene needs to happen in every 40k game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF_Fi7x93PY

Even when I'm not summoning daemons, I'm going to ally them in. Or they're going to randomly deep strike and attack the nearest unit on either side.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/05/24 03:40:06


Post by: CaptainStabby


Holy crap, I love the Cadians and the Countsas guys. Those death cultists especially.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/05/24 13:03:21


Post by: JChalmers


These are awesome as usual, cannot wait to see the new Wood Elves as Daemons!

Keep up the amazing work like always!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/05/25 03:04:47


Post by: Pekel


Thanks guys - I'm really excited to play some games with the Daemons.

Here's the crazy psychic homeless forest man who will be summoning the tree daemons. Hard to tell here but he's floating, and the branches under him will be painted to be glowing.



And here's some more Squats. Regarding the weapons - I'm gonna remove some of the gems and do a tiny bit of Imperial stuff to them, but they make perfect exotic meltaguns and a flamer. The rest of the squad will have lasguns. These guys are gonna be a Veteran squad to round my Knight Titan up to an even 500pt chunk I can tack on to existing IG lists.



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/05/25 21:48:01


Post by: Freytag93


Those daemons look awesome! It seems GW heard your plan to have daemons randomly show up and took it to heart

Is that psychic made from WHF flagellents and empire mage bits? I was looking to do something similar for my new bretonnia army.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/05/25 22:56:55


Post by: Cap'n Facebeard


Those daemons are cool, very Evil Dead. I especially like the treeman's claw, its menacing as all hell.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/05/27 16:23:30


Post by: CaptainStabby


As an aside re: Stunties... Have you seen this thread? I'm totally stealing this guys build for these.



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/05/30 04:08:06


Post by: Pekel


Freytag93 wrote:Those daemons look awesome! It seems GW heard your plan to have daemons randomly show up and took it to heart

Is that psychic made from WHF flagellents and empire mage bits? I was looking to do something similar for my new bretonnia army.

yeah, the timing on the daemon summoning couldn't have been better. And the psychic is made from plastic Empire Wizard and Flagellant bits. I'm glad I finally found a use for that staff end - I've always loved the look of it.

CaptainStabby wrote:As an aside re: Stunties... Have you seen this thread? I'm totally stealing this guys build for these.


Yes, those guys look fantastic! At some point down the line I'm thinking of making some Grey Knight Terminators using the Ironbreakers with Terminator arms. A lot like these conversions I made for a commission, but with GW instead of Mantic parts for the main bodies.



And my brother posted some more battle photos on Warseer. Here's a copy of the post for you.

Firedrake Thomas;7173492 wrote:About time I posted the photos up from a Planetstrike game we played a while back. This was the first game with the Wraithknight, which you can see was before the vine patterns were painted on.

The Eldar are positioned in their temples, ready to fend off the incoming Catachan troops.


The Wraithknight takes on a Leman Russ head on.


Assault is underway:


Veterans run toward the towering construct:


See more photos in the gallery.




Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/05/30 12:09:45


Post by: Wolf


Uhm Why have I not stumbled upon this blog before ? It's epic !

Really well done on all your models man and the pictures from your games are really good too. I'm going to be following your blog from now on


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/05/30 16:51:19


Post by: 40kFSU


This is a great thread! Plus I now have Guns-n-Roses blasting in my head!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/05/31 20:55:42


Post by: Pekel


Touched up my Harker squad, even though Harker is garbage in the new book. Real sad - this was probably my favorite squad last edition. I'd often drop a shotgun for a Heavy Flamer or some other special weapon. Although, looking at it now, those two guys on the left have the same head. I just got some new Space Wolf heads, so may chop the head off and swap it for something shaggier.



The new Squat Veterans and psyker are almost done with the converting. All the tree Daemons are primed and ready - they'll be next on my painting table.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Started slapping paint on my Tree Daemon. Really dumb, since I have a ton of real stuff I should have been doing tonight, but at least I'll sleep well while I'm away knowing that it's at home waiting for me.



I'll be spending most of the next week sleeping in a tent as I recertify as a Wilderness First Responder (pretending to be an IRL Catachan), but as soon as I get back I'll finish these Daemons up.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/06/09 22:29:44


Post by: Pekel


Wasn't sure if I should go for glowing blue on the tree-Daemons, like my Tyranid psychic/toxic accents, or glowing green like my Catachan equipment, so I did Photoshop mockups. Think I'm gonna go with green. Still need to do a bunch of painting and basing work before they're done, but you can pretty much see what they'll look like. They just need more detail and contrast.






Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/06/11 18:17:04


Post by: Freytag93


Honestly, I think you should go with a completely different color than ones used by your other armies.

Personally I would try purple. It would provide a lot of contrast and should give it an eerie look.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/06/24 03:23:04


Post by: Pekel


I know nobody wanted the green, but I had to go with it. I really strongly dislike almost all the Treemen models I've seen painted because there's too many random colors all over, and it looks clownish. I wanted to stay with greens and browns for mine.



And here's the 'Daemonettes':



These guys took WAAAAAY longer than expected. Apparently painting wood grain and highlighting tons of tiny leaves takes a while. I did start paint on a few more Catachan, the psyker, and the Squats, so hopefully I'll have some of those finished soon.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/06/24 08:07:59


Post by: deadmeat85


I think they look great with the green. You did an awesome job on the tree deamons.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/07/17 05:45:10


Post by: Pekel


Thanks deadmeat!

My brother posted some battle photos on Warseer. We played a game which was almost all counts-as models.

Firedrake Thomas;7218402 wrote:Some pictures of those trees in action!

Pekel and I played a fun and crazy game a couple weeks ago using the tree daemons. The armies were his Genestealer cult list (1000pts Astra Militarum plus 500pts Inquisitor) versus 1000pts Gray Knights plus 500pts Eldar. The Gray Knights and Eldar are both modeled as Catachan/Squats and played as counts-as (so the Snipers count as Rangers, Catachan with swords and shields count as Crusader henchmen, etc). The Inquisitor army is played using Genestealer models as Death Cult Assassins and Arcoflagellants, the Patriarch and Broodlord as Inquisitors, etc.

In addition to these armies facing off against one another, we also had the tree Daemons deeps striking randomly on the board and moving automatically each turn toward the closest unit to assault it. That's five factions in one 1500 point game!

The game was one of the maelstrom or war missions, and we both found it a very fun, dynamic, and fluid way of playing. Here are some of the battleshots:

The big tree daemon assaults the lifter (Daemon Prince of Nurgle v. Gray Knight Dreadnought)


Tree daemons assault the one remaining Catachan mercenary (Daemonettes v Striking Scorpion)


Patriarch and 'stealers assault Vengeance gang leader and his squad (Inquisitor and Death Cult assassins v. Coteaz and Crusader henchmen)


Catachan Brawlers (Arco Flagellants) and one Knife Fighter (Death Cult Assassin) after taking down almost the entire squad of tree daemons on the charge


Catachan Sharpshooters (Eldar Pathfinders plus Nightspear)


Squat Hearthguard (GK Interceptors) defend their outpost


Genestealer Cult command squad




Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/07/17 07:31:31


Post by: Meph


Ah, such abundance of lovely stuff to look at. tree-demons, oove it! And your take on the wraith knight is awesome. Could we get some pics of that? Pretty pleaaaase?


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/07/17 18:59:24


Post by: Rogue Wolves


WOW I just love how all of your armies share that one theme of jungle, and they all look incredible! It must be fun and very narrative to have all your armies able to fight each other on the same planet!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/07/27 17:54:54


Post by: Pekel


 Meph wrote:
And your take on the wraith knight is awesome. Could we get some pics of that? Pretty pleaaaase?

Only have one good one - here it is. Glad you like it - I'm really happy with how closely it resembles the old Epic Revenant Scout Titan!



WOW I just love how all of your armies share that one theme of jungle, and they all look incredible! It must be fun and very narrative to have all your armies able to fight each other on the same planet!

It is! I love having one overarching theme. Although just this weekend my Catachan left Verdekil to lend their support on the Shrine World of Mother Cabrini, where they allied with the Firedrakes Space Marine Chapter to defend the world against a marauding band of Night Lords. The belligerent Meat Bull, apparently growing restless in the jungles and looking for new game to hunt, agreed to join in and bag himself some Chaos trophies. (Meaning i brought the Catachan to my brother's apartment in NYC to team up with him against a friend). Both of the other guys took photos too, so there may be more later, but here's mine for now.

Bicycle Parade rolls on by the Rhino on their way to bigger and better things.



The Void Shield appears to be deactivated...



Super sweet Raptors. If you look carefully, you can see the Champion has the most awesome 40k-est armor possible (his armor is a giant skull).



Rough Rider sergeant runs the Chaos Champion through with an explosive spear, but the Chaos Marines win combat and murder all of the poor dino-riders.



Void Shield activated!



Absolute Madness



The Helbrute charged, Raptors used their jump packs in the assault phase, and the Chaos Bikers slammed into the Marines from behind. Many Hammer of Wrath attacks were had.



The Terminators jump off the roof and land amidst the Squats, who have been lurking in cover and just finished murdering some Chaos Terminators. Apparently that psychic power which makes everything rending is pretty good.



A twisted, warped visage sprouts from the Knight's shoulder right as it obliterates the Helbrute with its giant chainsword (now named "Thagomizer" - it's a dinosaur joke).



Last surviving Raptors shear off the Knight's leg with a meltagun, strategically toppling it right onto the nearby Space Marines and Rhino. It explodes and murders a bunch of dudes.



The Decimator hulks on over towards the Catachan Chimera, ready to punch a hole in its armor and torch the armored Guardsmen riding inside. We're all getting pretty pumped about seeing the Decimator's cool flamerfists in action... until it rolls three 1's for its hits.



The Decimator looms menacingly over the Terminators, which backhand it in the knees until it dies.



With an Imperial fracking tower in the foreground, the remaining powerfists and meltaguns converge on the Land Raider.



The game was an Imperial victory, with the Knight making it really difficult for the Night Lords to gain the upper hand. Was lots of fun, and we're all looking forward to playing again - next time I might ally Dark Eldar with our friend's Chaos, so he's not always getting ganged up on by his hosts.

He also introduced my brother and I to a new way of playing 40k, involving bidding strategy points to determine turn sequence and purchase benefits. It was lots of fun, and my brother and I played a second game to try it out. Right now we're worried we might prefer it so much that we're tempted to abandon official 40k all together.

Here's a bonus Void Shield photo from that second game - you can see that whenever metal models touch the glass, the lightning arcs off the contact point.



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/07/27 21:28:28


Post by: Da Big Mek


you really do seem to have the idealistic gaming scene going. Fully painted and beautifully converted armies, beautiful terrain. And consistent themes (your dudes match your terrain!)

Much jealousy and inspiration on my end. One of the great threads on this board. Well done


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/07/30 21:26:47


Post by: EyeamRai


I love everything about this thread.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/08/10 20:22:24


Post by: Pekel


Thanks guys! Squats are STILL sitting 99% completed... I'm terrible with being distracted.

With Forge World updating the Anphelion Project book, I decided to convert my own Dimachaeron and Malanthrope. I was recently given a free Hive Tyrant kit, and had lots of leftover Tervigon bits from a past commission, so these guys are completely from the bitz box. I have to say, though, I really regret donating away my old Tyranid bits a year or so back!

Malanthrope:



Dimachaeron gobbly torso:



Scratch-sculpted Dimachaeron torso (very WIP):



I've also really been working on my terrain. The tan stone bits were always too clean and bright, so I added a controlled brown wash to really make them look grungy. I'm also adding more foliage, and plan to have green algae streaking down some parts. I'll eventually photograph all of my terrain pieces, but even just after the brown I'm much happier!

Before:



After (still needs black wash on the base, green streaking on the stone, and more flock/foliage):



And lastly, I decided I needed a real terrain centerpiece. I found this toy treehouse for a steal on ebay. It also provided me with enough toy trees to make a few more stands of jungle terrain. I'm going to add camo netting, weapon emplacements, banks of communication equipment, fuel tanks, storage containers, and more.



Should be lots of fun to make!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And, at long last, I finished the Squats! They play as a Veteran Squad with 4+ save, two meltaguns, and a flamer. When joined by a Priest they cost 125 points, exactly enough to tag along with my Imperial Knight as a neat 500pt attachment to any of my other IG lists.



I wanted an Imperial Priest to tag along and show that not all the Squats are secular allies of the Mechanicus. This guy proves that the little dudes are still squarely on the side of the Emperor.



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/08/12 02:24:50


Post by: Pekel


Told some girl she couldn't come over because I had "important things" to do which would require my attention all day. I proceeded to make up for the past few months of no-hobby time by hamming out all day with garden shears, an orbital sander, glue gun, tinfoil, and insulation foam.

Accessorizing my warzone dollhouse was more fun than I might want to admit to a normal person. The treehouse has a twin-linked autocannon on the roof, missile launcher covering the entrance, a searchlight, secret backdoor bunker entrance, and all manner of fun little bits. Still looking for ideas on what to put on the big empty platform on the far left.



I was getting a bit bored with most of my terrain being LOS-blocking pieces, so this should be a little more interactive and fun to play on. Everything separates and the heights are compatible with my stone temple ruins so that bridges can be used to connect them in different configurations.

Also found some photos from old battles on my phone. Immortalizing them here so I can delete them off the device.

Bewildered Squats open fire as they're charged by warp-enlivened daemon shrubs. That game we had daemon plants randomly coming to life and attacking the nearest unit.



Orks being cool, not caring, and riding motorcycles up staircases to seize the objective (their wandering bomb squig).



Boyz bog down a Wraithknight, which only squishes one or two a turn with its prissy little delicate hooves, as the Nob powerklaws it to death over three turns.



Gone muddin'.



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/08/12 04:27:09


Post by: Warboss_Waaazag


Nice trukk!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/08/12 17:08:05


Post by: deadmeat85


Liking the Tree house FOB. As for the open space I was thinking Machine Gun Nest.



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/08/12 20:10:40


Post by: foto69man


Exalted and subscribed to this slice of awesome-sauce


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/08/30 03:52:58


Post by: Pekel


 deadmeat85 wrote:
Liking the Tree house FOB. As for the open space I was thinking Machine Gun Nest.


Nice idea! I'm going to keep it open for now, but I might convert up a few options to place on it down the line and that's a great idea for one.

foto69man, thank you!

Some more Dimachaeron progress. It's going to have a big curving Lictor tail, and Lictor feeder tendrils around the mouth.



And the Catachan jungle tree headquarters in progress:





Basecoats are good enough for a game, which will be happening early next week. Stay tuned!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/09/02 20:12:12


Post by: Freytag93


Wow, I can't believe what you've already done with the tree house. You've turned a kids toy into some great terrain. So glad I'm subbed to this thread


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/09/02 21:59:22


Post by: Relentless136


This thread is so much freaking awesome! Thank you so much for sharing


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/09/04 21:35:02


Post by: Pekel


 Relentless136 wrote:
This thread is so much freaking awesome! Thank you so much for sharing

My pleasure! I get so much inspiration from project logs online that I'm always happy to give back what I can.

Brother came to visit me in my cabin in the woods, and after playing a 1500pt Nids vs Eldar game, we decided we were long overdue for an Apoc match. A big board was also the perfect chance to try out my new terrain pieces (still very much in the process of being painted).

The board is a little janky looking, since we had to improvise an extension using some panes of glass typically used to winterize the house. Someday down the line I'll buy another 2' x 3' section and paint it up to look like an Imperial base, so we can make a nicer-looking Apocalypse board.

Brother finishing up deployment:



Freeblade Knight Carno Taurus and his Mechanicus Squat escort defend the perimeter fence. The Ratlings survived two surprising hails of fire from the Stompa shortly after, but the cowardly little abhumans bolted off the board shortly after.



Catachan HQ treehouse complex with its basecoat of paint. Will eventually get a million more details painted on, and plenty of foliage, but it served the game well. Has an emplaced twin-linked Skyfire autocannon as well as a regular missile launcher.



Spotter up in his tower searching for which booby trap to detonate in the jungle next (plays as a Forge World Earthshaker Emplacement, with the S9 AP3 shots representing detonating bombs/mines).



Vendetta comes in from reserves, starting to lay some hull points on the Stompa.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Squat Grudgebearer (plays as Vindicare Assassin) stayed perched on the roof the entire game. He missed his first two shots (at BS8) and then, on his first hit, failed to wound with his S10 AP1 shot. Not too impressive.



Leman Russ Executioner Storm King got hot three times, wrecking itself instead of the Trukk it was trying to hit. Found out later that tanks only take the Hull Point after failing a save, but odds are I would have ruined myself anyway. Catachan weren't exactly on top of their game this day.



Vendetta's-eye view of the battle.



The Trukk of 10 Burna Boyz, unfazed by the two rounds of shooting from the Executioner (which resulted in the death of the tank, much to the raucous appreciation of the Boyz, I'm sure), unloads ten templates on the newly-arrived Rough Riders.



Captain Bel'Haven arrives, casually putting a plasma bolt right into the visor of the Killa Kan on the nearby objective and blowing it to smithereens before all of his other plasma men get to fire.



Tired of riding around instead of krumpin' 'eads, Ghazgkull and his Meganobz unload to do some damage. The Ogryns prove incredibly resilient, holding out for several turns. The last survivor eventually charged out of the grass to attempt a last-ditch assault of a Biker Nob on an objective, but to no avail.



The Stompa turns its gaze on the Squats, who are Melta-beaming it without much effect.



And that's it for now. My brother should have more photos at some point.

Went back and forth for a bit, but by the end the Orks were very firmly in the lead. Amazing how drastically the score of a game can swing from one turn to the next. My Cats will have to step it up next time, as will I! Been on a bit of a losing streak lately.

EDIT: Here's a shot of the treehouse in another example setup. It's three separate pieces connected by bridges (compatible with my stone temple terrain), so it can be assembled in quite a few different ways.



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/09/05 00:02:21


Post by: cuss


Best use of playmobil I've ever seen. Also fantastic work.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/09/05 05:14:36


Post by: Meph


40K in a cabin in the woods, playing on a forest terrain. It can't get any better than that


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/09/18 03:31:40


Post by: Pekel


 Meph wrote:
40K in a cabin in the woods, playing on a forest terrain. It can't get any better than that

Agreed! I have fun making forest terrain up in my neck of the woods, and whenever I head into NYC to visit my brother I get to play on his cityfight. My plan is to eventually paint up a bunch of miniature pigeons and glue them all over his buildings when he's out of the apartment (with a few white streaks of droppings scattered about, just to keep it classy).

Anybody have GREY KNIGHT TERMINATOR BITS they're willing to part with? With the Inquisition and GK Codexes being split I need to make some new models to fix up my lists, and some Exo-Armour Squats will fit the bill nicely. I need Terminator arms and weapons to put on Dwarf Irondrakes. They'll be quite a bit like the ones I made below for a commission.



I've posted all these before, but here's the rest of my Squats. These Terminators will be the biggest and baddest of the bunch.

Catachan Squat Infantry with some homebrew, riding a tank:



Ministorum Priest:



Veterans in Carapace Armour:



Techpriest Enginseer:



Vindicare Assassin:



Jokaero:



Grey knight Interceptors:



They're pretty much an entire army, now!

Also, will soon be looking to take a new commission. Let me know if you need cool things converted for your armies!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/09/26 04:13:50


Post by: Pekel


Finally finished some guys I'd been stalling on.

This is a Primaris Psyker, who brings the jungle foliage to life to fight the enemy. He plays in a 500pt allied list with my tree daemons. I may eventually make a unit of jungle skeletons so he can resurrect the dead, too (by summoning daemons).



Here's the Daemons, though I've posted them before. Play as Daemonettes and a Daemon Prince. I'll eventually make another tree as a Greater Daemon.





And here's some assorted Guardsmen. Most of them are crew for my "spotter tower" Earthshaker battery, but I just made the guy with the heavy stubber to look cool. I'll run him as a heavy flamer, assuming he's just hosing bullets at point-blank range.



And here's the spotter tower, for those who haven't seen it. It plays as an Earthshaker artillery piece, and the S9 AP3 shots count as detonating booby traps. I need to touch it up with more weathering and add camo designs to the fabric.



The guy with the binoculars can stand up in the tower.



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/10/28 01:10:45


Post by: Pekel


Started mocking up my Exo-Armour Squats. These will ally with my Catachan and existing Squats as Grey Knight Terminators. Still need details and cleaning up, but these show the basic idea.

Terminator with Thunder Hammer.



Terminator Sergeant or whatever it's called for GK.



Terminator Librarian. I like the way the dwarf armor disguises the Terminator shoulders, so I may add it to the others too. My concern is that it looks a little too Warmachine-y, and I usually can't stand that aesthetic.




Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/10/28 06:57:07


Post by: deadmeat85


I think they look great. The Libby is awesome.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/10/28 21:51:53


Post by: Logan


Just a great blog! Totally lovely!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/11/11 00:58:26


Post by: Pekel


Thanks, guys!

Hopefully the Warmachiney Librarian from the last post won't stick out too much when surrounded by the normal Terminators, without the extra armor. I opted to keep them with smooth Terminator shoulders to reduce the Warmachine look, strengthen the "egg-like" resemblance to the original Exo-Armour Squats, and make them more obviously counts-as Terminators. Here's the squad so far - just need more bases and some grenades, and they're ready for paint!



Also have an Inquisitor to lead my detachment for that army, now that they're split from Grey Knights. I wanted a pretty bare-bones Inquisitor with Conversion Beamer to sit with my Jokaero and bolter henchmen, but I didn't know how to make a big weapon like a beamer on my tiny dwarf. Decided to run my Squat cannon, previously just an objective, as a marker alongside the tiny guy as his weapon.

The Inquisitor:



His Conversion Beamer (paint in progress):



And lastly, with the new Anphelion Project edition, I needed to make a Malanthrope. I had some big Nurgle bug wings in my bitz box and decided to put them to use, instead of the floating balloon-sacs on the official model. I still have some nasty gassy sacs and tubes on the back to give the shrouded effect to nearby Tyranids, but I'll take another photo of that part when the greenstuffing is done.



I'm going to hold off on finishing the Dimachaeron conversion until after Christmas - I hope to get some of the new Tyranid kits then, and I'll make good use of their bits in finishing my Dimachaeron conversion.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/11/11 07:49:17


Post by: deadmeat85


Stellar work there. Liking the new termies and the Inquisitor.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/11/11 09:35:59


Post by: richiefuzz


Wow! Amazing blog with so many great looking models!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/12/19 05:12:26


Post by: Pekel


Thank you!

Finally finished up some Squats. Well, almost finished. Photos always reveal some things that need neatening up.

Inquisitor with Conversion Beamer. The big cannon "conversion beamer" is just a marker, with all LOS etc. drawn from the Squat. I'll use it variously as an objective or emplaced useable weapon in games without the Inquisitor. He's definitely getting another black wash on the beard and some blacklining around the copper face medallions.



He'll be in the unit with his two assistants (play as Jokaero), who I've had made for a while. I had to shuffle my lists when the new Inquisition and GK Codexes came out.



Here's the Squat Runemaster:



And, finally, one last guy who is still a work in progress - needs a grenade in that hand, for example, and I might greenstuff some more details. I don't really know what to field him as in my army lists, but I truly hope some of you recognize the character.



Look familiar? Anyone?


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/12/21 00:39:42


Post by: Pekel


Malanthrope is almost done - will probably have it 100% done by Monday.

Primed the main Dimachaeron body to get a sense of it so far - still need to smooth a lot and fill some gaps, but I'm really happy with it so far!



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/12/21 12:50:41


Post by: Meph


Wooowowowowoww Dude! That last batch of Squads looks so frickin' amazing! jaw-on-the-floor stuff, mate!

And those 'nids are creeping along nicely as well, love the conversions.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2014/12/28 06:59:19


Post by: Pekel


Thanks, Meph!

And there's a new threat in the jungle - finally finished that Malanthrope! Also got to use it in a game Christmas day and was pretty happy with it.



Got a Sporocyst as a gift, as well as another Treeman to convert into a Great Unclean One. Stay tuned.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/01/11 20:41:43


Post by: Pekel


My image hosting site is dead, but I finally switched to Photobucket for future pictures. I don't like the website as much, but it's more reliable.

Have way too much stuff in the "WIP" section of my life at the moment, and here's the latest.

Pretty much finished Dimachaeron. The early Dima sculpt photo gave the impression of a giant Lictor, which I loved. The final product was a flailing goofy mess. I wanted to capture the "giant Lictor" I had in my mind's eye, so this is the result. The mouth in the chest is from a Tyrannocyte, and works perfectly there with the Tervigon sacs.



Other thing is a second treeman for my "Warpwoods" detachment. Summoning daemons is for heretics, so my Catachan psyker brings trees to life to smash his enemies. The original treeman looks slender, elegant, and his posture looks both defensive and martially competent. He plays as a Daemon Prince. I wanted my new one, playing as a Great Unclean One, to look stumpy, fat, and shambling. I gave him a wider torso, giant hunchback, lowered the head, shortened and thickened the legs, and lengthened the arms. The fat shattered trunk with the vines and skulls spilling out is supposed to mimic the spilling intestines of Nurgle daemons. I'm going to sculpt some more looping vines there as well as clumps of fungus all over him.



Plus I just got a unit of Tomb Guard skeletons, so that ancient temple warriors can be summoned from beneath the jungle loam (as lesser daemons). And I still have to paint eight Exo-Armour Squats. And finish my Mucolid, Sporocyst, and about 15 Spore mines. And I have two units of Eldar that only need finishing details.

Busy life!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/01/12 23:38:31


Post by: Pekel


Also,was asked to photograph the mouth, so here it is:



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/01/14 03:28:24


Post by: Pekel


Mucolid done, Sporocyst well underway, and currently breathing the paint fumes of my freshly-primed Dimachaeron. It's a good day for the Splinter Fleet.




Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/01/14 03:36:21


Post by: Veteran Sergeant


 Pekel wrote:
Also,was asked to photograph the mouth, so here it is:

That's incredibly cool.

Hopefully you can go back and reload the images. This is too good of a plog to be full of empty posts.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/01/14 16:48:22


Post by: Greldinard


That Dimachaeron is awesome!

Great stuff!



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/01/16 18:56:16


Post by: Freytag93


Wow, that tree daemon is amazing! I love your idea for catchan "daemons", way to forge the narrative

Do you have some more close up shots of that? I'd love to get a closer look.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/02/02 04:43:37


Post by: Pekel


 Freytag93 wrote:
Wow, that tree daemon is amazing! I love your idea for catchan "daemons", way to forge the narrative

Do you have some more close up shots of that? I'd love to get a closer look.

Not yet - I'm almost done with all the greenstuffing, and I'll take a closer shot before priming. It's pretty close to done, but has taken the backburner with a lot of things being painted.

My brother made the post below on Warseer (doesn't have a Dakka account), and I thought i'd share it.

Firedrake Thomas;7371824 wrote:I realized I never uploaded pictures from our other battle on Christmas weekend. With Majhost down for so long (for good now?), I also finally got a photobucket and have started to upload some pics there. Here are some battle shots from an 1850 Relic game of my Dark Eldar vs Pekel's Eldar.

The board:


Warwalkers outflank through the jungle


The lone surviving Eldar jetbike flees as its Dark Eldar counterparts come to claim the relic.


Razorwings were the MVPs. They killed a squad of Dark Reapers, destroyed a Falcon, and exploded a Warwalker before the game ended with them still locked in combat with the remaining 2 walkers.


Dark Eldar completely surrounded the relic by the end of the game.


Also finally touched up my Dire Avengers converted from Guardians. I also have a unit of Rangers, a Sporocyst, and the converted Dimachaeron almost finished with paint.



Hopefully more updates soon!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/02/02 23:14:54


Post by: Pekel


Rangers done:



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/02/03 04:05:29


Post by: EyeamRai


Eldar's looking good!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/02/03 09:09:00


Post by: Greldinard


Love the eldar!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/02/09 06:48:36


Post by: Pekel


Thanks, guys!

As a break from Eldar, finally finished the Sporocyst... was rather tedious to paint, as most of the little detailed segments were repeated five times over.



Still need to finish the Spore mines from the kits, too, but the custom Dimachaeron is about 99% done!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/02/09 22:09:33


Post by: Freytag93


Can't wait to see the Dimachaeron fully painted. Looking forward to it

Also, I love the eldar jetbike from your brother's post. Do you have more pictures of that squad? I can't see most of the previous pictures on this thread thanks to the site going down.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/02/09 22:23:02


Post by: GiraffeX


The Eldar look really nice but that sporocyst looks like an amazing model, your hard work painting it really paid off.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/02/10 07:02:10


Post by: Pekel


 Freytag93 wrote:
Can't wait to see the Dimachaeron fully painted. Looking forward to it

Also, I love the eldar jetbike from your brother's post. Do you have more pictures of that squad? I can't see most of the previous pictures on this thread thanks to the site going down.

Dimchaeron finally done - see below! As for the brother's jetbikes, afraid he used the same image host. He's currently taking goof photos of all his units, however, so I can share the jetbikes when they're up.

GiraffeX, thank you! It was tedious, but it looks good all done up.

And here's the Dimachaeron, finally done! I think it looks loads better than the wildly-flailing official model.



Maw view:



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/02/10 23:54:25


Post by: EyeamRai


That thing is fantastic!!!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/03/02 00:43:09


Post by: Pekel


Thanks, EyeamRal!

Finished my Spore Mines. Pretty exciting stuff.



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/03/08 04:29:57


Post by: Pekel


Making very good progress on my Exo-Armour Squats, and started on the skeletons. Still deciding on a scheme. Any suggestions?



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/03/08 16:39:50


Post by: Dreadclaw69


For the skeletons I'm a fan of the red


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/03/11 02:31:43


Post by: Pekel


Ha, hearing all the answers on different websites! I'll probably paint up one of each and compare them in person before making a final decision.

I posted this a while ago but here's an update. I really like modeling allied forces with creative "counts-as" options, but with so many allied forces I wound up having to reference at least one PDF document every game (and sometimes two, three, or even four!). It was really irritating to have to scroll through poorly-laid-out Codexes to find every little rule for a unit in the middle of a game, so I decided to consolidate each allied unit's rules on a single page.

Once I had the rules together, I figured I should add photos to make the "counts-as"easier for new opponents. With the photos, it made sense to then add little fluffy bits justifying the rules for the unit. Then I'd have blank spaces on the page begging to be filled, so I started looking up art online or writing little fluff boxes. Next thing I knew, I was making a fully-fledged book.

Here's an example of some counts-as rules for two Forge World units (Griffon Mortar and Earthshaker Emplacement) as well as a unit from my Catachan-allied Eldar detachment.



All the rules are right there, with photos of the models, so no scrambling around for PDFs or printouts. All the rules, including army-wide rules and weapon profiles, are right there in the entry. Makes playing infinitely more enjoyable!

If anyone is interested in seeing the whole document, with lots of photos and fluff, shoot me an email (p.h.dolan at gmail). I'd love proofreading and input.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/03/16 08:01:18


Post by: deadmeat85


Hey really like you idea on the count-as codex. Great way to personalize your army. Might have to steal your ideas again.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/03/20 23:49:51


Post by: Freytag93


Love your homemade codex. It's a great idea and I would love to play against such a beautiful army. Great work again man


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/03/20 23:56:29


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Pekel its been awhile, i made the switch to infinity. But your blog is always a blast to sift through Keep it UP

BB


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/03/21 03:24:27


Post by: EyeamRai


I like the green and the tan the best!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/03/23 01:45:29


Post by: Pekel


Thanks, guys!

 bebopdrums2424 wrote:
Pekel its been awhile, i made the switch to infinity. But your blog is always a blast to sift through Keep it UP

Heya, Bebop! Saw you made the switch... tragic stuff. Of course your painting is still fantastic, but I hope someday you come back around to 40k!

EyeamRal, I think I'm going to test-paint both turquoise and tan. It's been a tough choice, but I think those will fit in best with the terrain.

Dunno when I'll get to finish all these, so figured I'd share WIP shots.

Squats in Exo-Armour (Grey Knight Terminators).



Summoned Skeleton (lesser daemon) progress so far.



Warp-imbued ironwood tree (Great Unclean One). It's shorter than my standard warp-imbued tree made from the unconverted Treeman kit, but it's way bulkier. I thickened the legs, added the fat gut, gave it a big hunchback, and stuck on a ton of spare branches. I'm already regretting all those skulls now that painting has started...





Looking forward to space dwarfs fighting a warp-tained living jungle hellhole as it comes to life around their outpost!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/03/23 06:38:14


Post by: deadmeat85


Man, I need to live where you live. Would love to play against this ob a daily basis. Stunning work. Truly inspirational,


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/03/24 17:02:56


Post by: Pekel


Thanks, deadmeat85!

Started making some classic stacking hills for my terrain collection. Wanted to share because they're an easy project that I think make a big difference in the playability and visual interest of a battlefield. Thought I'd walk people through the steps I took.

1. Maximize your storage space. In the shelves where I keep terrain, I had some "dead space" where the terrain didn't fill the whole height of the shelf. By screwing in some brackets, I could install "sub-shelves" to allow more terrain to fit. I measured these two spaces - one was 8"x11"x3", and one was 7"x11"x3".

2. Get the most hill for your space by experimenting with paper templates before cutting any foam. Because my hills are going to be 1" tall, I could have three stacked up in each shelf space. I cut three 8"x11" rectangles of paper, and three 7"x11". The bottom of each pile stayed the maximum size, and I cut the two layers above into interesting shapes that "puzzled" together, so there was almost no wasted dead space when they were stacked.

3. Don't forget how they fit together! After you cut your paper, be sure to draw on it somehow to indicate how they fit together. If you shuffle them up without doing this, you could have a very difficult time remembering how they all fit together in a nice compact stack.

4. Trace the outlines of the hills onto pink foamboard. Make sure to make them slightly larger than you intend, as the cutting and sanding process will shrink them a bit.

5. Cut the hills out. I just used a kitchen knife, but if you have a foam cutting tool (a heated wire on a handle), that's ideal. Here's my pink foam cut and stacked. Note how each piece has a designation (7" L3 means it's on the third level of the 7" wide shelf, while lines drawn on the edges show how it fits with other hills stacked on that level).



Here's the same hills spread out. Right now some of the edges are really squared off, but as they get trimmed and sanded they'll round off to more organic shapes. I tried to make some interesting shapes that work together to make winding crevices or canyons for models to move through. When setting up the battlefield you can decide if you want these canyons big enough to allow monstrous creatures, or if you want them small enough that infantry can dash into them to escape larger models (the idea of a Catachan squad dashing into the safety of the crevices as a Carnifex bellows in rage, unable to fit its bulk in for pursuit, is pretty neat).



Here's two three-stack hills. The top pieces will have spikes so they can hold bridge pieces in place.



That makes them compatible with my existing temple terrain, which uses the bridges.



An example 4-stack hill, with an objective on top. This should be more interesting to fight over than having the objective plopped on the ground somewhere.



An important thing, both game-wise and aesthetically, is to have some scatter terrain for your hills. This will really help break up the "stepped" look and have them appear more natural. Game-wise, it will give units incentive to move up and onto the hills for a cover save, instead of being exposed on a barren hill. I have a jungle board but these could easily be desert rock outcroppings, crystal clusters, fossilized bone bits, tundra pine trees, Tyranid growths, etc.



Next step on my hills is to sand and round the edges, then cover the tops and edges of the bases with sand. I also plan on embedding large fishing weights into the hills, to give them some heft. The foam is very lightweight, and you don't want your hills sliding around during a battle.

Will probably post a few more photos eventually showing the hills before priming. Hope this was interesting/helpful to at least someone!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/03/24 17:08:21


Post by: Fifty


Nice looking terrain.

For your skeletons, I think the green is by far the best option. It looks both different and totally appropriate at the same time,


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/03/29 20:35:01


Post by: Pekel


Someone interviewed me about the Catachan army for their blog - figured I'd share it here. It has some new photos and some background on both me and the models.

http://www.theflyingmonkeys.org/?p=272


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/04/21 02:32:57


Post by: Pekel


I know, I have a bunch of things WIP... but I got a new kit and couldn't resist! Converting Tyranids was always my first love, so the bugs get bumped up in line. Here's my take on the Exocrine/Haruspex kit, which has been magnetized (seems like it's almost designed to take magnets!). I didn't magnetize the scything tail, but if I wind up writing it into lists I'll do so.

The Exocrine was converted to mimic my custom Tyrannofex and Tyranid Bombard (which I used to call the Exocrine, but had to change when GW released an official model). I took the same periscope-eye that both have, and added the blind head that my Tyrannofex has. The big Hive Bombard had flesh hook anchors on its chest to hold it against recoil, so I did something similar with this guy. The forelimb anchors are from Spore Mines spliced onto the scything talon forelimbs. I think the final product looks more like a menacing, stationary gun platform than the unconverted kit!



From day one, I didn't like the Haruspex. Some people like "gribbly" Tyranids, but I prefer to sleek them down by removing excess spines and tentacles. Random spikes and tentacles usually look goofy and awkward to me, not dangerous. I do like the new Toxicrene, but the lumpy gutsy Haruspex maw always looked more Chaos/Nurgle than Tyranid to me. I did, however, instantly love the curved spines by the Haruspex head - they look a lot like miniature scything talons from the old metal Screamer-Killer. So to convert my Haruspex, I removed all the lumpy tentacles and reduced the maw to a toothed ring. Then I took a set of maw-talons from a second Haruspex kit and added them around the head. I love the result - it has a sort of Predator/Dilophosaurus look. And from the right angle, the head looks like a mini Screamer-Killer with the four talons coming off the sides.



Very happy with the improvements to both kits, particularly the cleaned-up Haruspex! Exo-Armour Squats, daemon skeletons, and Great Unclean One tree are all about 80-90% done and will hopefully be up soon.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/05/04 03:53:56


Post by: Pekel


At long last, Exo-Armour Squats are done.



With a wee little Squat lad wearing naught but carapace armour:



And for those who don't recall, the Squat that started it all - my Catachan Enginseer:



The hill terrain is also done barring a few more spots of varied foliage, the Great Unclean One is very close, the Skeletons are at about 80%, and the Exocrine/Haruspex has already passed the basecoat stage. So lots more coming up, hopefully soon!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/05/04 11:42:25


Post by: Edreynaline


These are awesome! Really well painted and converted especially the psycannon/assault cannon thing.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/05/09 06:31:37


Post by: Pekel


Thanks! I'm very pleased with the final Exo-Squats.

Remember these from a few posts back?



Got them finished up pretty quickly. Here they are all painted:



And here's an example setup. Note they're not completely finished here - the bright tan got another wash to tone it down, and then some green streaks and patches. The scatter foliage is also going to be painted so it blends in much better. But I think think would be a neat choke point before a Catachan base setup. I can even have my "Jurassic Park" gates tie right into a cliff wall, or put the entrance door in between the walls of a canyon.



Once the scatter terrain is painted and there's lots more of it, it should look really good and soften the severe "stepped" look of the terrain. But i'm excited to have modular terrain that really makes the game more vertical and interesting!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/05/09 14:48:43


Post by: Warboss_Waaazag


Nice terrain.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/06/02 03:09:00


Post by: Pekel


Finally finished this guy at long, long last! All the sculpting took a long time, and highlighting all those leaves and skulls was a chore. Plus the branches are incredibly delicate, and a few needed repairs during the painting process. I'm happy with the final product, and possibly even happier that it's just done!




And if I decide I want my Catachan to summon Daemons, here's the 500pt list I tack on. A Primaris Psyker with the Malefic discipline (doesn't take up a force org slot, so I can tack it onto any IG list even if it has two HQ), Great Unclean One, Daemon Prince of Nurgle, and ten Daemonettes. Still painting-in-progress are my ten summoned skeletons (Bloodletters).



Also, if my brother and I are feeling like a game is too boring, we treat the Daemons as being in reserve and randomly deepstriking down (scatter 6D6 off the center of the board). They automatically move towards and attack the nearest unit. Represents the armies fighting in Warp-tainted jungle and makes for some very funny (and terrifying) game moments.

Sorry for the bad photos... the pictures looked oversaturated in Photoshop, then as soon as I uploaded them to Photobucket they looked undersaturated. Still not sure why Photobucket messes so much with the saturation of everything I upload.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/06/22 03:50:33


Post by: Pekel


I've seen a few knock-off company miniatures of the Emperor floating around the internet, and I'm wondering if anybody knows where to get a cheap one. It can be a terrible sculpt and terrible quality, as long as it's cheap.

I want to make a terrain piece for my Catachan which is a metal statue of the Emperor, covered in verdigris and jungle growth and bird droppings, surrounded by tons of heads on spikes. I like the idea that the Catachan don't get on their knees and pray to the Emperor - they go out and kill the biggest thing they can find and offer it up in fealty. In addition to just being a neat concept it would give me free reign to paint up a ton of fun xenos, daemon, heretic and generic Fantasy monster heads.

Rules-wise, one model within 6" may give up their shooting to "pray to the Emperor" and gain the Ork Lucky Stikk special rule.These are the two Emperor models I really like but have had no luck finding online. Any help would be appreciated!





For content, even though it's rather old content, I found these three photos still on my phone. Since my old image host died and I lost most of my photos, here they are uploaded again for those who have never seen them.







Almost done are those skeleton Daemons and the magnetic Haruspex/Exocrine. Also assembled six new Jetbikes, in the process of converting Shining Spears, and bought parts to base my Eldar grav-tanks on nice big bases.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/06/22 07:30:29


Post by: youidiotkid


The colors are so vibrant and cleanly painted. I really like what you've done with those dwarves, too. One day the Squats will return... one day...


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/07/13 00:58:57


Post by: Pekel


Invited a bunch of friends up for a "Ham Slam" wargaming weekend, which was a resounding success. I had a bunch of friends who either played long ago, or were curious about learning, so we got together to teach everyone how the current edition works. Now one is painting his Orks after not touching them for years, another wants to make a cityfight board based off his neighborhood, another is thinking about buying a Kill Team, another is going to look for her old Space Marines, and another (not always the most enthusiastic person) kept talking about how much fun he had. Far better result than I had dared expect!

I mostly play my brother, so it's exciting that so many people are now interested in joining in. Looks like we'll have a good little hobby community going!

Some photos:

5-player Kill Team free-for-all from the first night. Most players were either brand-new to the game or hadn't played in years, so it was an easy way to teach and resulted in a lot of betrayal, broken alliances, and backstabbing. My one of my friends appears to be considering my newly-outflanked Sentinel.



I intended to send this photograph to my brother, but instead texted it to a girl I recently started talking to. Oops.



Phallic Tervigon was the butt of countless jokes, especially when he clogged up on turn three and starting shooting blanks. Poor guy!



The Termagants that were spawned by the Tervigon (AKA "goo Monsters," AKA "Spermagants" AKA "D*ck Lizards" AKA etc.) made some unlikely friends in allied Chaos Marines.



The Dino Riders make a bold dash at the exposed Khorne Marines, but a few boltgun rounds to the face makes them re-think that option and fall back.



My favorite part of the game - the Helbrute Murderclan or whatever the formation is called teleports into the jungle, steadily chewing their way through the right flank. I love those models. One of their lascannons managed to explode the Triceratops, evidently triggering its store of mortar shells and killing several nearby Space Marines in a glorious 6" explosion.



My friend Ethan was disappointed to learn what good a Crozius was against a raging Helbrute.



The Black/Red Templars were pretty much left to the dogs by their allies - by the time the allied Catachan and Eldar were mobilized to help, most of the Space Marines were buried beneath an Ork green tide or torn to bit by the Helfucks.



My friend Dan, 100% new to 40k, took great delight in the Venomthrope's gas cloud. Dubbed the "Fart Monster," the Venomthrope and his monster friends parked in cover took a ton of firepower to bring down.



Khorne Lord falls beneath the rifle butts of a bunch of prancing elvin space potters and painters.



The Wraithknight hangs out, missing every single shot and remaining largely stationary. The table was divided over whether it was trying to hit ships in low orbit, was confused by the clouds, or was just shooting its enormous gun beams up into the air over and over again like some useless giant raver. In this photo you can see the Wraithknight and Leman Russ teaming up to miss their shots at the Helgang Murdercrowd. In the background, TheChirurgeon is teabagging the Wraithknight in celebration.



Exocrine reaped a solid tally with its crazy plasmic cannon. The Chaos Marines hung back and chilled with it.



As I was typing this, I got a message from one of the new players saying he wants to learn how to paint. Another guy left talking about a new Tau army he wants to make. Another just texted me a photo of his ancient Star Wars minis to make a counts-as army. Truly a great success!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/07/13 01:42:58


Post by: insaniak


Reall love those treeman 'daemons'... awesome idea, and nicely executed.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/07/14 05:17:22


Post by: EyeamRai


Sounds (and looks) like an awesome time!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/07/16 20:54:50


Post by: Freytag93


Great job man. It's always fun when you can have an awesome time and draw people back into the hobby. I'm trying to do the same thing with some people in my area. It can be frustrating to start, but every person added is another person to play with and share the hobby with.

Also, loved the tea-bagging picture


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/08/04 21:45:55


Post by: Pekel


 Freytag93 wrote:
Great job man. It's always fun when you can have an awesome time and draw people back into the hobby. I'm trying to do the same thing with some people in my area. It can be frustrating to start, but every person added is another person to play with and share the hobby with.

It's continued to be a great success... just had people over on Sunday for a game, and everyone who came over now has an army (plus an additional guy who didn't make it, but is planning on joining the fun). Thrilled to see how much everyone is into it!

I just made flickering flaming wreck markers after wanting to for years - stumbled across LED tealights in a store and figured it was a sign. Super easy to make, and look awesome. I sprayed the cotton with like ten layers of varnish so it's really durable. Also plan on using them to indicate building ruins on fire in cityfight, so anybody moving in them takes dangerous terrain tests.



With the new Eldar Jetbikes, converting my old ones to Shining Spears. Made the laser lances from Guardian shuriken catapult arms, Dark Elf spears, and Dark Eldar heat lances all pinned together. Still awaiting two brand new ones.



For the new Shining Spears, I still need Guardian Heavy Weapon Platform shields. You can see I cut them up to make wings on the jetbikes. I believe each weapon platform comes with a spare, so hopefully players have some extra. Anybody have spares to donate/trade/sell?


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/08/16 23:54:03


Post by: Pekel


Got the necessary bits from some members of another forum, so progress continues!

Here's the squads in progress. Previously I only had three Guardian Jetbikes, a Vyper, and an Autarch on Jetbike. For my birthday I got six new Guardian Jetbikes and converted my old ones to Shining Spears. With the new kits and bits I've added an additional two Shining Spears and a Warlock on Jetbike.



Wanted the Warlock to look special, and I'm real happy with how my spare Wraithknight head looks. I was missing a bit for the bottom of the jet intakes, hence the blobby greenstuff, but it will all be smoothed and filed down before priming.



Now I'm stepping back to finish the daemon skeletons and Exocrine/Haruspex that have been sitting at about 95% completion for several months. Hope to post those soon!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/08/20 22:06:50


Post by: Freytag93


The jetbikes are looking good mate. I like that you've made the two types stand out from each other so that they are easily recognizable on the table.

I'm not sure how I feel about the warlock though. When he is next to the other bikes, his looks pretty stumpy. I think if you elongated the body a bit, you could keep the head and it would fit with the aesthetic of the others. Just my 2 cents.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/08/24 23:26:07


Post by: Pekel


Freytag, I definitely agree that the "stumpy" look sticks out a bit - I played with elongating it, but decided I preferred the compact look over making it too long. Making it longer also introduced problems with how to cover up the exposed sides. Appreciate the feedback, but I think for now I'll keep it as it is.

For the past ~10 years, I've mostly played 40k against my brother exclusively (gaming stores were quickly ruled to be out of the question after a few tries there). Recently my friends, who all know about my enthusiasm for the game, encouraged me to host a Ham Slam weekend to teach them all how to play.

Now they all play, and they're mostly engineers. With access to laser cutters, 3D printers, translucent acrylic, all manner of servos/motors, etc. We're entering a crazy renaissance of hobby possibilities.

One just "whipped this up" at work today for his growing Necron army. It's still an early draft, and a glowing crystal is planned for the middle, but I think it's looking good. A variety of towers, bridges, and glowing barricades are in store as well.



I'm thinking he could start a decent little ebay store of kits down the line. Would anyone here be interested? Anything you'd like to see?


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/08/24 23:54:26


Post by: plastictrees


Awesome thread. Reminds me of Citadel Journal.

Glad you've got your friends on board. It's so much better as a social experience. I haven't been able to play a pick up game with some random person without feeling like I had just thrown a few hours of my life away in years.

Your buddy should take a look at all the laser cut MDF out there right now...there's a lot of it. In the US, Underground Lasers and Impudent Mortal are the ones I've bought from.
I wont say that the market is saturated, but there are a lot of choices and some of it has become pretty sophisticated (CNC workshop in Australia in particular IMO).


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/10/13 15:35:30


Post by: Pekel


My converted Haruspex and Exocrine had been sitting at about 98% done for months, so I finally added the finishing touches and photographed them.





My reason for neglecting personal hobby time has been helping all my friends get their armies off the ground. Eventually I'll share a few photos from crazy battles. I did upload this one picture, which a friend took of his Necron terrain. All of this was made in the past few weeks - he works with laser cutters professionally, so has been terraining up a storm since getting into the hobby. Next step is to make it "prettier" (right now it's pretty boxy and functional) and add LED lights.



Been having more fun and getting more games of 40k in than ever before in my ten+ years in the hobby, so hope everyone else is having the same!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/10/16 16:56:31


Post by: Freytag93


I'm liking the necron terrain. Is the plan to keep it black or are there some detailing colors in the works?


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/10/20 03:00:56


Post by: Pekel


 Freytag93 wrote:
I'm liking the necron terrain. Is the plan to keep it black or are there some detailing colors in the works?

More detail is planned, for sure. This is an early playable version.

In my friend group's Ham Slam Facebook group I said jokingly there should be one of those corny name generators for ridiculous Warhammer names. Then it was time to do dishes and fold laundry, and I didn't want to do either, so I made one. (I'm apparently Rustboil the Skull Blaster, probably a cool Nurgle dude.)



Which member here has the coolest name? Can I resist making a Chaos Marine Kill Team where every model is based on a friend's name? Only time will answer these questions.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/10/20 06:56:35


Post by: deadmeat85


So I'm "Woe Hand the Head Killer." I like your a lot better than mine. :(


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/10/27 11:42:24


Post by: Edreynaline


Manclad the blade drinker?


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/11/10 07:07:58


Post by: Pekel


Finished the Squat Iron Ancestor (fluff name) / Grey Knight Venerable Dreadnought (rules name) / Temper Tantrum Toddlerbot (what I actually call it when playing).



That's the last model in my 1,000pt allied Squats army (using Grey Knight rules). Time to start on my next ridiculous project.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/11/10 09:14:15


Post by: evildrcheese


Nice Squat dread thing. That terrtain you posted a few posts back looks great. Really interesting board to play on, I bet.


EDC


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/11/15 18:36:52


Post by: Pekel


Brother came up to visit my in my charming ham cabin, and since my big work meeting in Trenton was cancelled I took a sick day for us to get in a game. Nothing cures sick days like a festive game, and nothing makes a game festive like intentionally choosing beer that matches your army's color scheme.



Game was a fast-themed Eldar list versus Squats. The Eldar had a core of Guardian Jetbikes with a Warlock, Shining Spears with an Autarch, Falcon with Fire Dragons, Wave Serpent with Dire Avengers, Vyper, Swooping Hawks, two War Walkers, a Guardian unit and a little squad of Banshees on foot. Allied to it was a detachment of Tau Fire Warriors and two units of Crisis Suits, modeled to look like Eldar units.

Squats had a core of Grey Knights (Terminators, Librarian, Interceptors, Dreadnought) with some allies (Vindicare, Knight, Coteaz and an Ordo Xenos Inquisitor with henchmen). One lone unit of IG Veterans accompanied the Knight, which technically made the army unbound, so that opened me up to poential late-game "objective secured" Eldar shenanigans.

Eldar defending their Webway Portal gate in the deployment zone:



Squats defending the entrance to one of their underground fortress-workshops. The big cannon is a marker that follows the Inquisitor to represent his conversion beamer. You can also see some of the irregular Catachan rabble that the Squats have bribed into fighting for them - brawlers, knife fighters, equipment scavengers, etc. (arco-flagellants, death cult assassins, and crusaders, respectively).



I was playing the Squats, my brother the Eldar. At first I really had concerns - I was greatly outnumbered, lacked mobility for most of the army, and lacked objective secured. I did, however, have a Knight. I planted an armored castle of 8 Terminators at my objective to counter any deep-strikers or outflankers, and dropped the Ordo Xenos Inquisitor with henchmen (two Jokaero and 8 Henchmen with boltguns) on the objective. The Jokaero gave everyone +12" range and the GK Librarian blessed them with the ability to re-roll misses, making them a pretty respectable firebase throughout the game.

With my home objective in very solid hands, I charged my Knight directly up the table. The Squatnought (Grey Knight Venerable Dreadnought) followed behind, its tiny legs pumping to keep up with its big knight buddy. SRM (member of this forum) introduced me to the chant "He's grumpy, he's stumpy, and things are gonna get bumpy," which I recited whenever appropriate. This was his first ever game, so my fingers were crossed that the little guy would prove himself.



My Squat Heathguard combat squad (Grey Knight Interceptors) with thunder hammers shunted 30" ASAP to close with the Crisis Commander and his bodyguards and shield drone. They were equipped with fusion blasters, which I wanted tied up as my Knight approached. On turn two the Squats assaulted - all thunder hammers missed except for one, which rolled a 1 to wound. The Crisis suits won combat, forcing one lone surviving Squat to fall back 8".



Seeing this, the Knight (AKA Carnotaurus, AKA "Meat Bull") made a detour on his objective-grab run and assaulted the Crisis Suits. The Hearthguard, having regrouped, launched a fresh assault. The Knight's reaper chainsword would have obliterated the Crisis Commander, but his bodyguards jumped in and were obliterated in his stead. The thunder hammer Hearthguard, sensing glory, swing for the lone commander... and missed his attacks again.

When the deep-striking Swooping Hawks joining in, hoping to haywire the Knight to death, they missed pretty much all their grenades and 6 died to a single stomp. They fell back and were cut down.



The Squat Grudgebearer (Vindicare Assassin) did better than he has in any past game, one-shotting a Crisis Suit and exploding a Falcon grav-tank amongst other feats.



The Dire Avengers Wave Serpent, hoping to find a way to get its objective-secured Dire Avengers to the Squat objective, was shot down. The Dire Avengers made a decent account of themselves in a firefight with the Squat veteran squad, but were forced into cover and died out of objective range.



By about turn 5 these were the Squat casualties:



Versus the Eldar casualties (plus a Wave Serpent, burning on the board). I was rolling real hot, and my brother not so much. He's a great sport, though! I did more apologizing than he did complaining.



After killing the Crisis Commander, Meat Bull made it atop the Eldar objective. The Shining Spears and Autarch wheeled around him, trying to goad him to leave the objective and assault, but he checked his bloodlust and raked them with fire instead.



As soon as the lone hammer Hearthguard jumped onto the objective, Meat Bull was relieved of duty and immediately leapt down to kill the impetuous flying bicycle elfs flitting about his feet. The Squatnought closed in on the other side for some sweet double-teaming action.



The last Shining Spear died to Meat Bull's hammer of wrath, unceremoniously kicked two hundred feet away into a crumpled heap. The Autarch's weak elfy lance bent against the strong dwarven steel of the Squatnought. Meat Bull's reaper chainsword attacks all missed the Autarch in retaliation - would the Autarch survive after all, as the last Eldar model on the table?



NOPE. The Squatnought swings in with three 6's to hit, obliterating the flimsy space elf. Pounded his scrawny butt right through the bottom of his shiny scooter, gaining Slay the Warlord and officially tabling the Eldar. Suitably impressed with his little toddler bro, Meat Bull offered a gentle fist bump with his reaper chainsword.



Was a fun game, but poor luck really hampered the Eldar. The Fire Dragon squad was 2" too far to target the Knight before they were obliterated, the haywire grenades all missed, the bright lances and missiles all missed or rolled too low to glance... there was no chance.

On the upside, the tables will soon be turned. I just received the Imperial Knight kit for my brother's Christmas gift.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/11/16 20:02:05


Post by: Freytag93


Always love seeing battle reports from you, mate. With all of these amazing models and a great board filled with cool terrain, its quite inspiring. It definitely gets the creative juices flowing.

Keep up the great work


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/12/11 01:21:19


Post by: Pekel


Here's my latest dudes:





I swear I become a slower and more easily distracted painter every year... on to the next batch, though!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/12/11 01:46:20


Post by: Stormwall


Gore draped skull burster?

Works for me I guess. Anyways, I love how bright and crisp your miniatures are. Nice to see a fully painted squat army, especially loving the dread proxy.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/12/11 08:10:40


Post by: evildrcheese


Nice. I like the bike conversion you've done for the Warlock. Very fitting.

EDC


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/12/14 20:10:13


Post by: Freytag93


 Pekel wrote:
I swear I become a slower and more easily distracted painter every year... on to the next batch, though!
At least you are making progress. Slow progress is better than none at all


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/12/29 05:10:24


Post by: Pekel


So I had some time today, and wanted to lay out my Catachan infantry to decide exactly how my new Squat models would fit in and be armed - don't want anyone sitting out on the sidelines of an Apoc battle because they were odd man out of a legal squad build. This turned into laying out my entire army for a group shot. This then turned into laying out ALL my armies for group shots.

Here's 3,157pts of JP Regiment Catachan.



2,999pts of Catachan allies (Deathworlders, Mercenaries, Dendromancer and Jungle Daemons, Mechanicum Squats, Imperial Knight).



4,543pts of Craftworld Mata Nui Eldar (including 500pts of allied Wraithsuits using Tau Battlesuit rules).



And a mighty 6,857pts of Splinter Fleet Wyvern Tyranids (plus a few Genestealer Cultists to mix into Catachan/Eldar armies when allying).



...guess I've spent a lot of time on this hobby, huh?


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2015/12/31 00:32:47


Post by: Freytag93


WOW! That's a lot of models! Its so cool to see a fully painted army laid out in all its glory, let alone 4!

You definitely need to do a New Year's apocalypse bash using all of your models. And don't forget the pictures!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/01/01 21:13:57


Post by: Illumini


Awesome looking armies! They all have so much character.

Also like your name generator Beastface the Blood Monger


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/01/09 05:22:43


Post by: Pekel


Thanks guys!

Currently all of my wacky "counts-as" armies are all game-legal allies and CAD armies. I'm finally, however, making my first 500pt unbound list. I can tack it into an IG list to add some crazy stuff, but the entire army then plays as an unbound one. I gave in because there's a few conversions I wanted to make, but couldn't find how to fit into a small legal list. These include:

The Herpaderpadon. This is a big toy monster from a C-rate sci-fi original-style movie that my dad's friend directed as an excuse to live in Hawaii for a while. The ridiculous toy became the mascot of the big parties I throw at my cabin periodically, and when it broke in half down the middle we began using the hollow halves as drinking goblets. The model will count as a Nemesis Dreadknight and feature lots of inside jokes for the friends I ham with. At the moment the face has a more fleshed-out head, the tinfoil covered in greenstuff, and the tail fin trimmed down to better match the toy.



Any guesses on this guy and his rider? He'll play as a Thunderwolf Lord (special Character Harald Deathwolf, so he can attach to a Catachan squad and give it outflank).



Here's the Storm Shield:



And the Buffalo Chicken, based on the username "BuffaloChicken" I use on some other forums (any my favorite food). There will be nine of these, in three units, playing as explosive Tyranid Spore Mines.



Last model in the army will be a shaman riding a Terradon, counding as a Blood Angels Librarian with lump pack. Still need to acquire the Terradon, and I'm not too happy at the counts-as for this; the Terradon model is pretty big. Still thinking of alternative rules to use for a shaman on a pteranodon.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/01/09 06:42:32


Post by: Rygnan


Maybe a Tzeentch Sorceror Lord on Disk would be a better fit for the Terradon? Disks themselves are a lot bigger than a marine with jump pack, so the larger Terradon would theoretically fit well


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/01/09 22:02:30


Post by: Pekel


 Rygnan wrote:
Maybe a Tzeentch Sorceror Lord on Disk would be a better fit for the Terradon? Disks themselves are a lot bigger than a marine with jump pack, so the larger Terradon would theoretically fit well

My first thought with the Terradon was to have it as a Farseer on Jetbike, but since Eldar aren't battle bros with my Catachan it would have to flap around on its own devices and be unable to use its best powers (Guide, Fortune, etc.) on anyone. I wanted a battle bro model that could bless units for some fun synergy. Blood Angels Librarians have some really neat synergistic powers, so I'm looking forward to that. I think I'll just mount the Terradon on a heavily-weighted 40mm base and tell opponents that all line of sight must see the guy on the Terradon's back - ignore the Terradon wings/etc. entirely. That should be pretty consistent with the size restrictions of plenty of jump-packed Space Marine HQ characters. Also not excited about having to move the big Terradon awkwardly in terrain pieces, but oh well...

Here's today's counts-as update from me. I've posted my Catachan snipers using Eldar rules before - here they are again for reference. Catachan fluffwise have fantastic snipers, but the IG Codex has no rules for them. Hence the counts-as allies.

Robert Muldoon (Illic Nightspear):



Deathworld Sniper Unit 1 (Eldar Rangers)



Deathworld Sniper Unit 2 (Eldar Rangers)



Deathworld Assault Team (Striking Scorpions - they have glowy displacement vest power generators on their backs for a 3+ save, and poisoned throwing knives for Mandiblasters)



Just got the new Eldar Craftworlds book for Christmas, and that made a HUGE difference in the list - with the changes to Eldar Pathfinders, a ton of free points opened up. So I made one more Assault Team member (on left with glaive) and three more Snipers.



I also need to finish their Power Loader (War Walker). But first, my Taurox!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/01/10 23:55:16


Post by: Pekel


Here's my power loader War Walker, affectionately referred to in every single game as the "Get Away From Her You B*tch" after the line in Aliens. It fits in the 500pt allied list with my Deathworld assault squad and snipers from earlier.



It used to play as a Venerable Dreadnought in my Squat list, but was replaced by the cutie below who was more in keeping with the theme. Luckily the points reductions in the new Eldar Codex allowed the power loader to fit into that allied list with the snipers, after some weapon swaps which needed to be re-painted.



And here's my converted Taurox. My grenadier meltavets used to ride a Chimera, but by swapping it for this Taurox I save 10pts and can add a third meltagun to the squad.



The pictures are a little washed out (apparently my phone lens was fogged and I didn't notice). Also noticed a few tiny final things needed (highlight Taurox gunner's bandana, paint silver on the Taurox door hinges, and a bit of blacklining on the power loader gun), but overall I'm happy with them.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/01/19 06:26:32


Post by: Pekel


Progress on the Herpaderpadon, Calvin and Hobbes, and the Buffalo Chickens:







Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/01/19 06:59:14


Post by: evildrcheese


The Buffalo chicken are amazing. Dino rider is coming along brilliantly too.

EDC


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/02/23 02:26:05


Post by: Pekel


Thanks EDC! The Herpaderpadon, Calvin and Hobbes, and buffalo chickens are all done barring water effects drying and some final details. Here's the finished conversions and some WIP painting:











Finished photos real soon!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also, since I'm really excited about the new Genestealer Cult models, thought I'd share the commission I did a few years back.

Dude wanted a Tyranid army, but modeled like Genecult. Only unconverted models in the entire army would be purestrain Genestealers and Lictors. I apologize in advance for the really crummy photos - I had a terrible camera at the time i was doing these, and no decent light setup. My attempts at color-correction on mediocre software led to some atrociously oversaturated shots.

Genestealer Patriarch (converted from a metal Broodlord, plays as a Tyranid Prime).





Ascended Patriarch (converted from old metal Patriarch, plays as Swarmlord).



Genestealer Magi (converted from Fantasy wizards, play as Zoanthropes).







Genestealer Cultists (converted from Catachans and Cadians, play as Termagants with Fleshborers).



Cult Gangers (converted from Catachans and Cadians, play as Termagants with Devourers).



Cult Limos (play as Tervigons, converted from some ebay car models).





Genestealer Hybrids (converted from Ork Boyz and Genestealers, play as Ymgarl Genestealers).



Cult Skimmer (Converted from Land Speeder Storm, plays as flying hive Tyrant with two twin-linked Devourers).





Cult Flyer (Converted from Landspeeder with Storm Talon wings, plays as Hive Crone).



Cult Psyker (converted from some Techpriests and a bit from the Fantasy giant, plays as Doom of Malan'tai).



Ogryn Hybrids (converted from Fantasy ghoul things, count as Tyrant Guard).



Cult Tank (converted from Leman Russ, counts as Tyrannofex with two-shot weapon).



Cult Tank (converted from Leman Russ, counts as Tyrannofex with torrent flamer weapon).



Cult Power Loader (converted from Dreadknight, plays as Trygon).



Purestrain Genestealer (unconverted, plays as Genestealer).



Purestrain Lictors (unconverted, play as Lictors).





Objectives/terrain (converted from Fantasy kits). The big totem rotates and serves as a turn counter.





Some group shots:





The client painted up a bunch more purestrain Genestealers using a paint tutorial I made for him to mimic the scheme, as well as some tunneling drill-transports to play as Mycetic Spores. I'll see if I can find the pictures he's sent me from past games.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/02/23 19:59:24


Post by: Knightley


That genestealer conversion set was pretty cool, particularly like the idea of a limo just dumping garudsmen *ahem* gaunts out of it. Very cool!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/02/23 21:57:51


Post by: Warboss_Waaazag


This themed army is awesome. I love the limos.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/03/03 03:01:10


Post by: Pekel


Almost finished my first Unbound list - a little block of 500pts I can tack onto other lists for some wackiness. Mostly an excuse to make some models I've wanted to make, and then choose whatever rules seem most fitting. Soon I may bump it up to 1,000pts with a big lumbering turtle-tank wearing an eyepatch, a flock of Terradons counting as a flyer, and more.

I know i posted some of this in my earlier posts, but to recap...

First are the buffalo chickens. My name in several places is "BuffaloChicken," so it seemed fitting. These explosive little fellas explode to defend themselves, like Catachan Barking Toads, so I'm gonna use Tyranid Spore Mine rules. I converted them from 15mm velociraptors.



Next is Calvin & Hobbes. They use the rules for Harald Deathwolf, so they can attach to a Catachan squad before the battle and outflank them before splitting off to do their own thing. Calvin's shield is a tiny Spaceman Spiff saucer, and his weapon is a power croquet mallet. Hobbes was a Star Wars Nexu cut apart and enlarged with paperclips and greenstuff.



Most ambitious was the Herpaderpadon (plays as a close-combat Dreadknight). This was based off a few things - the goofy toy monster dino dubbed the "Herpaderpadon," which one night ten years ago was elected the mascot of my house parties. It eventually came apart in the middle, and since then the hollow halves have been cherished as drinking goblets. The model incorporates a bunch of inside jokes/references from the cup below, which is a silicone pint I had made up so people wouldn't break glasses around the house (it's got the Herpaderpadon, the arrows, the bee, the waterfall, the tower of beer cans, the "TT" flag, the hidden hamburger, and the cup itself is mounted by the little keg). And finally, the guy riding the beast's back is modeled off a friend who is the reigning Warboss. That means his Bosspole (aka wizard staff, or beer cans taped together) is always the largest. All the weedy gits at the party with smaller bosspoles have to do what the Warboss says.







Last thing to finish off this wacky little army is going to be a shaman riding around on an anteater-xenos. Hope some of that long post was interesting!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/03/03 06:58:30


Post by: evildrcheese


Calvin and Hobbes in the 41st millenium is amazing. Really enjoying the pics of the genestealer cult.

EDC


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/03/04 03:57:54


Post by: Pekel


Crazy pirate Squats!











All of them had conversions, mostly the arms. Lots of fun working on these characterful old sculpts.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/03/04 06:40:22


Post by: evildrcheese


Yes! Especially like the melta dude.

EDC


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/03/04 22:05:21


Post by: Veteran Sergeant


I know I've said this before, but this remains one of my favorite 40K plogs. So much character to everything. And it has Squats and Genestealer Cult.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/03/05 16:00:35


Post by: bebopdrums2424


Dude. Simply beautiful. Always amazing character and creativity here, and to boot, your painting seems to have gone to the next level. Youre a force to be reckoned with. A true table top gaming guru, not to mention a fellow jungle lover. Epic bro.

BB


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/03/05 20:57:46


Post by: Fifty


There is an unbelievable amount of creativity in page 8 right here.

That Knight is amazing - really intimidating. That tyranid looks incredible. Fantastic bright colours. The warlock jetbike is a great conversion. Love the yellow on Get Away From Her You Bitch. Love the Cheshire cat grin on Calvin/Hobbes. Awesome conversion work on the magi.

(The only thing I am not 100% sold on is the very bold grey highlighting on the black.)


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/03/20 02:31:17


Post by: Pekel


Thank you all so much for the compliments and encouragement!

Fifty, I totally hear you on the bold highlighting, but it's quick and looks good on the tabletop. I used to drybrush and then wash down with black before hitting the final edge highlights, but I actually like it more now. Definitely looks less intense in natural lighting and from a distance.

Finished the last model for my "joke" Unbound allied detachment. This is a shaman on anteater (or I guess an Ant Reaper, a raptor-like Deathworld creature which hunts giant ants in packs, anything to make it more Catachan). Anteaters were my absolute favorite childhood animals, and one stuffed anteater has a reputation for being thrown around at parties a lot.

Here's Licker (or Liquor, depending on who you ask), the party anteater:





Decided a Seeker of Slaanesh would make a good conversion base. Stock model:



Extended, Genestealer arms added:



Finished conversion, with Amber Wizard on top:



And the painted version. The blue flannel cape is the color/pattern of the fuzzy bathrobe I often wear when playing 40k at my cabin, and you can see a Jameson flask turcked away underneath. The model plays as a Blood Angels Librarian with jump pack - the base is the proper 32mm size, and the steed is ignored for LOS. A holstered bolt pistol is on the model's other side.



Here's the final 500pt detachment of Unbound crazies.



Now off to start assembling my Overkill Genestealer Cult!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/04/22 06:54:54


Post by: Pekel


One more Squat:



In addition: Many years ago, back when the Trygon was just a Forge World model, I converted my own from a Carnifex and loooots of sculpting stuff/looted Aliens toys. That left me with a spare set of Carnifex legs and so, like any half-decent Tyranid player, I made a torso/tail from clay and used lefover bits to get a "free" Carnifex into the deal. I recently tore it apart, since it had a worthless weapons loadout, and converted it into an Old One Eye (after the character's spectacular performance going Hulkamaniac under my brother's control during a climatic campaign battle). By coincidence, a friend gave me some legit OOE metal claws in the middle of this conversion.





(Pedantic note - I know my converted OOE has a mace tail, while the official unit has a scythe tail. I'm just a very unsubtle person and like bludgeoning over slicing, especially given OOE's otherwise chunky and brutal aesthetic. I play him using the official rules.)

Now, time to get cracking on my Genestealer Cult!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/06/03 06:07:52


Post by: Pekel


Spent a long time on these guys, but it's nice to have them finally done! I love the way you can switch around the different front/back halves during assembly to make everyone unique.



All the Genestealer Cult sculpts are fantastic, and fit right in with the old classic sculpts. The only one I don't much like is the Patriarch, but I've got the old fat model so I'm set on that front. Abberrants are next in line and already in progress.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/06/06 15:07:08


Post by: Greldinard


Pekel: you've done a superb job on these Genestealer cultists.
Great colour scheme - so nice in fact, I want to collect them too


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/06/06 15:26:34


Post by: Spacewolverine


Pekelly, that carnifex conversion is just awesome. I love the tail and the old school claws. It's like new school meet old school.

Genestealer cultists look great, I really like the skin tones.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/06/21 06:47:55


Post by: Pekel


Thanks, guys!

Slowly chipping away at the Genestealer Cult...



Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/06/23 02:32:18


Post by: Freytag93


Wow those cultists look amazing! The models themselves are quite nice. I just picked up a set for my own cultist army, and man is the detail solid. I wish GW would make a generic cultist multi-pose kit. I think they would sell literally thousands.

Back to the topic at hand, the skin on those cultists is superb. If you don't mind explaining, how did you do it? I'd love to "borrow" your scheme


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/07/04 21:09:31


Post by: Pekel


 Freytag93 wrote:
Wow those cultists look amazing! The models themselves are quite nice. I just picked up a set for my own cultist army, and man is the detail solid. I wish GW would make a generic cultist multi-pose kit. I think they would sell literally thousands.

Back to the topic at hand, the skin on those cultists is superb. If you don't mind explaining, how did you do it? I'd love to "borrow" your scheme

Thanks! Skin recipe is actually really simple:

1. Basecoat Vallejo Dwarf Flesh.
2. Highlight Vallejo Elf Flesh.
3. Wash Agrax Earthshade.
4. Highlight Vallejo Elf Flesh.
5. Highlight 1:1 Vallejo Elf Flesh and Vallejo Skull White

Good luck!

Took a break from the Cult for a few hours and got started on my War Turtle (Land Raider Ares).



Still very WIP, of course, but I like where it's heading!


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/07/04 21:20:18


Post by: Spacewolverine


Nice work, make for an awesome Squiggoth too.


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/07/14 23:50:14


Post by: Pekel


Finally got this crew almost ready to roll! Just the squad of 16 grunts left to finish, and they're all underway. Plus two convertederted Princelings, but I can use any Purestrain models as stand-ins until they're done.

Sorry for the mediocre photos. My phone often decides it won't let me send pictures to email, so I had to upload these to Facebook from my phone so I could get them. When I use Facebook they get grainy and lower-resolution.







Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/07/15 06:04:11


Post by: evildrcheese


Wow. Awesome stuff, the dude is 3 arms is outta this world!

EDC


Verdekil XVIII: Welcome To The Jungle @ 2016/07/26 01:45:47


Post by: Freytag93


Well done, as always

I like how you did the familiar. It looks very interesting. And creepy of course!